Ombuds Sacks BI Lawyer for Extortion

The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed from service a lawyer from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Mandaue City for extorting a tourist applying for an extension of his visa in 2013.

Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente had directed the chief of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Mandaue City to implement the dismissal order against Immigration Legal Officer II Serafin Abellon.

Abellon’s grave misconduct case stemmed from the charges filed by tourist James Mercier who claimed that the immigration officer demanded P25,000 from him for the processing of his application for tourist visa extension.

Since his visa will expire on May 27, 2013, Abellon was forced to concede to the demand and initially gave P5,000.00 on May 06, 2013, then P10,000 on May 16, 2013.

He has decided to seek the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that resulted to the arrest of Abellon on May 24, 2013 while he was about to give the balance.

During his arrest, the NBI agents recovered from Abellon the P12,000 marked money given by Mercier.

The amount needed for the renewal of Mercier’s visa was only P3,030.00 as revealed by the BID special collecting officer.

The anti-graft investigators gave no credence to Abellon’s plea for leniency on account of his 40 years of government service and explained that dismissal from the service is an indivisible penalty which is imposable even on the first offense.

Aside from dismissal, Abellon was also meted out the accessory penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. The immigration regional director has been ordered to implement the order.