The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld the Office of the Ombudsman's verdict in 2021 that found Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel guilty of significant misconduct in the "pastillas" bribery scheme.
In its 27-page decision promulgated last week, the CA Fifth Division stated that "Overall, the testimonies... to the Court constitute reasonable and substantial grounds to believe that Albao, Binsol, Mendoza, and Naniong were part of and were involved in the pastillas scheme."
Deon Carlo Albao, Danieve Binsol, Fidel Mendoza, and Chevy Chase Naniong were found guilty of grave misconduct and conduct injurious to the best interests of government service in the Ombudsman's 2021 ruling.
They were among the 18 BI employees fired by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last year for overseeing the airport fraud.
The CA reduced Senior Immigration Officer Grifton Medina's sentence to six months, finding him simply guilty of lack of duty for failing to act on the fraudulent actions of his subordinates.
"The dismissal of the charge for grave misconduct does not mean that Medina is off the hook. The lack of direct evidence to implicate him as one of the ‘bosses’ or direct perpetrators of the pastillas scheme would not necessarily result in the dismissal of the administrative charge against him," the decision read.
When the "pastillas" bribery scam was revealed in 2020, officials discovered that BI agents were being paid bribes of up to P10,000 per passenger.
The bribes were reportedly wrapped in white paper to resemble pastillas.
The Ombudsman charged 43 BI employees involved in the scam with graft.
The Senate earlier feared that the strategy was also being used to bring in sex traffickers and staff from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).
