14 March 2014

Porshe-Riding and Gun-Totting Ex-BOC Clerk Escapes Heavy Penalty

Porshe-Riding Gun-Totting
Anybody here still remember former Customs clerk Paulino Elevado IV?

The salary grade 2 ex-employee of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) faced charges of attempted murder after he allegedly fired his gun at a vehicle after a traffic altercation in Makati on 21 January 2012.

Police said Elevado, who was driving a white Porsche, one of 7 luxury vehicles he allegedly owned, chased down a Toyota Innova after a minor mishap. This was confirmed by a CCTV camera in the early hours which showed Elevado’s sports car speeding on the southbound lane of South Luzon Expressway as it chased the Innova being driven by a 20-year-old student.

The student, who declined to be identified, swerved to the service road heading to Villamor Air Base to evade Elevado. However, Elevado did not give up chase and eventually caught up with the student and his passenger.

As expected, Elevado later insisted the Porsche sports car he was driving at the time of the incident was not his.

This is the same Elevado who was accused by an international trader of consumer goods for allegedly asking as much as PhP 200,000 in bribe to facilitate the release of shipments. It was the Department of Finance’s (DOF) Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) identified the complainant as a certain Flor Tagle, an import and export consultant for Prima Modas Inc.

The good news is that the Office of the Ombudsman found a Porsche-driving clerk guilty of violating anti-graft laws and ethical standards for civil servants last 12 March 2014. The DOF-RIPS said the Ombudsman found "probable cause" to indict Elevado for 5 counts of falsification of public document and 2 counts of violation of Section 7 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for his false declarations in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

The DOF also said the Ombudsman found Elevado guilty of serious dishonesty, with the aggravating circumstance of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The bad news? Since Elevado already resigned from the BOC and could not be meted the penalty of dismissal, he was slapped a mere fine of PhP 20,000, forfeiture of all retirement benefits, and perpetual bar from re-entering the government service, including government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs).

There was no mention of any criminal charges filed, but some sources that the attempted murder was dropped for unknown reasons. There were also reports saying that Elevado has now migrated overseas.