He was recently promoted by President Rodrigo Duterte but former Bureau of Customs (BOC) chief Isidro Lapeña will have something new to worry about now that he has to face charges of graft.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) today filed the graft complaint against Lapeña at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The case stems from 105 containers containing ceramic tiles which arrived from China and went missing at the Port of Manila earlier this year.
According to the NBI, Lapeña allegedly failed to stop the release of the containers from the port despite being told that the operator who was managing their releases did not have sufficient documents. The containers also allegedly did not undergo the required examination at the port.
According to GMA News, the NBI filed a 34-page complaint at the DOJ which recommended that Lapeña and an unidentified person be charged with the violation of Section 3, paragraph (e) of the Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The law cited by the NBI states that the act of causing any undue injury to the government by “giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference” through “manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence” is deemed unlawful.
Apart from that, the NBI also recommended that Lapeña “be administratively charged with Gross Neglect of Duty and Grave Misconduct,” reported the Manila Bulletin.
Based on the NBI’s investigation, port operator Asian Terminal Inc. allegedly planned to release the containers without supporting documents. The only document they possessed was a “transmittal paper” containing signatures of BOC officials that were allegedly forged, according to the NBI.
According to the NBI, the Port of Manila’s district collector reported this to Lapeña but the then commissioner allegedly “interposed no objection” to the release of the shipment “despite [the containers] being the subject of the continuing alert and the absence of any documents to support or be the basis for its release.”
All of the containers were later found in different warehouses in Bulacan, ABS-CBN reported.
Lapeña first attracted controversy in August when four empty magnetic lifters were found in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The PDEA alleged that the lifters may have contained PHP6.8-billion (US$126.451 million) worth of illegal drugs but Lapeña, who was then in charge of the agency that should have intercepted the machines, insisted that there weren’t any meth found in them.
However, he later made an about-face and said there might have been illegal drugs inside the lifters.
Despite his apparent incompetence, Lapeña was promoted by Duterte to become the director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
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