CA affirms dismissal of three BI officers over ‘pastillas’ scam

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the dismissal from service of three Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers over their involvement in the ‘pastillas’ scam, which allowed the illegal entry of Chinese citizens into the country.

In a 23-page decision, the CA Special Sixth Division denied the petition filed by BI officers Aurelo Lucero, George Bituin, and Salahudin Hadjinoor seeking the reversal of the March 2022 decision of the Office of the Ombudsman that dismissed them from service.

They were found administratively liable for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

“We emphasize that findings of administrative agencies, when based on substantive evidence such as the testimony of a credible whistleblower, deserve great respect by courts and can be the basis for the imposition of administrative liability on a public officer,” the CA said.

“As the Office of the Ombudsman found Lucero, Bituin, and Hadjinoor to be part of the pastillas group based on overwhelming substantial evidence against them, we see no reason to depart from the same,” it added.

The CA said it gave weight to the positive identification of whistleblowers Allison Chiong and Jeffrey Dale Ignacio against the three former officers.

They identified Lucero, Bituin and Hadjinoor as administrators of the Timbre Central Viber group chat, which was responsible for forwarding the list of foreign nationals to various Viber group chats of the ‘pastillas’ group.