THE Department of Justice wants to again reshuffle about 200 Bureau of Immigration employees purportedly to avoid “too much familiarity with the area” despite a ban on the transfers and movements of officers and employees in the civil service during the election period.
In addition, Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas wants to pursue the investigation of former Immigration Commissioner Siegfried Mison for an administrative charge, arising from the custodial transfer of a South Korean fugitive, although he is already out of office.
BI officials could not explain the basis or motive of the two plans, but sources close to Mison said they may be connected to Mison’s order last year to limit the powers assigned to Associate Commissioner Gilbert Repizo after he was linked to the case of Chinese fugitive Wang Bo.
Repizo, who sources claimed is associated with Caparas, was stripped of some powers after he was blamed for the continued detention of Wang in Philippines although he was already set for deportation to China, which had asked for his extradition over a criminal case.
Caparas, for his part, stressed that while the administrative charge against Mison has become moot upon his removal from office, the Bureau of Immigration under new Commissioner Ronaldo Geron Jr. is pursuing the investigation.
“That’s a possibility. But again, that will really depend on the evidence we have. That will depend also on recommendations of the NBI agents who have investigated the case. I don’t want to preempt them,” said Caparas, who also supervises the NBI.
Caparas said Geron is now in the process of “revisiting” the case with cooperation of BI officials and personnel and in coordination with the Ombudsman.
Citing the Tuwid na Daan (straight path) policy of the Aquino administration, he said they would not want to send a message to the public that mere resignation or removal from office would allow government officials to evade penalties for their supposed liabilities.
Mison was sacked from the top BI post last month after he allowed the transfer of the fugitive Cheo Seongdae from the BI Warden Facility in Taguig City to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines detention cell in Quezon City following his second arrest in October.
Aside from the probe of Mison, Caparas also said the BI will implement another administrative revamp although it is prohibited by the Omnibus Election Code and other election laws.
“The bureau normally reshuffles people so there’s not too much familiarity with the area. That’s something again that is due. It’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Caparas said, about a month after Geron recalled around 200 BI personnel Mison re-assigned under his “Good Guy In, Bad Guys Out” program.
The justice secretary said he discussed with Geron a nationwide reshuffle of BI ground personnel.
“It’s really reassignments to ports just to remove familiarity and improve the efficiency,” Caparas said, apparently unaware that Mison used the same reason when he effective froze the 200 personnel he re-assigned.
“All of us are in agreement, these are good measures to be taken. We would like to restore not just pubic confidence in the bureau, but also the belief that the bureau is able to service them properly,” Caparas stressed.