MANILA: The office of the Ombudsman has dismissed graft and corruption and other criminal charges against customs officials over the seizure of used clothing, saying the questioned confiscation fell within the mandate of the charged officers.
The anti-graft body, in a nine-page joint resolution, junked the criminal complaints against Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Jessie D. Dellosa and six other officials for graft and corruption, grave coercion, robbery, grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, and oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
A certain Jersafe Salatandre accused the customs officials of going beyond their mandate in an inspection in Navotas City in February last year, when they forcibly opened and padlocked a warehouse without consent and the requisite letter of authority. The customs officials then returned days later with the letter of authority from then Customs Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla.
In their defense, the customs officials said the seizure was done in the performance of their regular duty, an argument which the Ombudsman upheld.
“Undoubtedly, both operations were done in the regular performance of respondents’ official functions,” the Ombudsman said in its resolution.
“Significantly, all the bales of used clothing seized were properly turned over to the custody of the auction and cargo disposal division,” it added.
The Ombudsman also noted the same complaint is now pending before the Office of the Commissioner.
“Consistent with the doctrine of concurrent jurisdiction, which simply means equal jurisdiction to deal with the same subject matter, the settled rule is that the body or agency that first takes cognizance of the complaint shall exercise jurisdiction until its conclusion to the exclusion of the others,” the resolution noted.
