Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. hailed the Civil Service Commission for upholding the dismissal of nine immigration officers for alleged involvement in human trafficking at the international airport in Clark, Pampanga.

 

            “We commend the CSC for affirming the dismissal of these employees. What they did has brought shame and disrepute to our bureau,” David said in a statement.

 

            He added that the ruling should serve as a stern warning to other BI personnel that the present administration is serious in pursuing its agenda of good governance and a graft-free bureaucracy.

 

            The BI chief was referring to a June 28, 2012 decision of the CSC which affirmed the order of Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima dismissing from the service the nine BI employees.

 

            They were identified as Romulo Dannug, Jose Melendres, Rey Alfred Hernandez, Ramoncito Nuqui, Evelyn Marinduque, Gayle Sanglay-De Guzman, Robin Pinzon, Sheryll Manguerra, and James Guevarra.

 

            De Lima ruled that the employees were found liable for “dishonesty, grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and gross neglect of duty.”

 

             In its ruling, the CSC dismissed for lack of merit the appeal filed by the dismissed employees, saying there was no doubt that the latter committed the offense charged against them.

 

            The commission gave credence to the testimony of a witness (whose identity was withheld) who exposed the employees’s nefarious activities in facilitating the departure from the Clark airport of thousands of passengers, who are mostly victims of human traffickers and illegal recruiters.

 

            The witness’ testimony, according to the CSC,    constitute a detailed narration of acts “in what appeared to be a convoluted but organized system of corrupt BI employees and their cohorts in a web of anomalous criminal activities.”

 

            It cited the results of an investigation which showed that from May to July 2008 alone, there were 2,080 unaccounted passengers as they were not processed by Clark immigration personnel although their names were in the airline manifests.

 

            It was learned that the witnessed voluntarily confessed to investigators her participation in the anomalous activities, hence her testimony was deemed credible.###