The Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila has found guilty a former officer of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for failing to declare her business interests in her 2010 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth (SALN).
Delia Morala, a former Customs Operations Officer V of the BOC, was found guilty of the charge of falsification by a public officer under Article 171, paragraph 4 of the Revised Penal Code after the Manila RTC found that she had made an “untruthful statement” in her SALN.
This “untruthful statement” was her failure to state that her husband was an incorporator and stockholder of a real estate firm, the court said.
The Manila RTC, which also ordered Morala to pay a P5,000 fine, sentenced her to an indeterminate jail term from 2 years, 4 months, and 1 day (prison correctional medium) as the minimum penalty, to 8 years and one 1 day (prison mayor medium) as the maximum penalty.
Morala’s conviction was based on several criminal cases filed against her in 2017 by the Office of the Ombudsman, which stemmed from a complaint of the Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) of the Department of Finance (DOF).
The court’s ruling stated that Morala was guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of falsification by public officer when she answered “No” to the question, “Do you have any interests and other financial connections including those of your spouse and unmarried children below 18 years of age living in your household?” in her 2010 SALN, when the fact was that her husband Mariano was a stockholder and incorporator of Moravilla Real Estate Corp.
The prosecution was able to present evidence that Mariano Morala was one of the incorporators and stockholders of Moravilla Real Estate Corp. with a Certificate of Incorporation issued on Jan. 27, 2010 and Articles of Incorporation executed on Jan. 15, 2010.
Given this fact, the court said Morala was legally bound to declare this in her 2010 SALN.
In her defense, Morala claimed that she did not know that the real estate firm existed and that her husband was an incorporator and stockholder of the company because they were already separated at that time.
The court, however, was unconvinced because the accused failed to present proof to back up her statements.
It also noted that Morala feigned knowledge about the existence of Moravilla Real Estate Corp. despite the fact that the address of the company’s principal office was the same as their conjugal home.
The RIPS, which is the DOF’s anti-corruption arm, is encouraging the public to immediately report any suspicious activities and transactions in the agencies under the DOF (e.g. BOC, Bureau of Internal Revenue or BIR, Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC), through its Information Against Corruption page which can be accessed using the URL https://www.dof.gov.ph/report-corruption/.
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