At least two counts of falsification of public documents were filed before the Manila Regional Trial Court against a Bureau of Customs (BoC) agent who allegedly failed to declare his luxury vehicle and other properties in his statement of assets, liabilities, and networth (SALN) since 1996.

Charged before the court was Victor Barros, a Special Agent II of the BoC who had been working in the bureau since 1981.

“The undersigned Ombudsman Prosecutor, Office of the Ombudsman, hereby accuse Victor Cernaiz Barros of the crime of Falsification of Public Documents, defined and penalized under 171 of the Revised Penal Code,” said the information penned by Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer II Ruth Laura Mella of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mella recommended a bail worth P24,000 for the temporary release of Barros.

Records from the Office of the Ombudsman showed that the case against Barros stemmed from the complaint of the Department of Finance-Revenue Integrity Protection Service (DoF-RIPS).

DoF-RIPS, which was created by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 259, were tasked to conduct lifestyle checks, investigate allegations of graft and corrupt practices, and to file the necessary criminal and administrative complaints against erring officials of the DoF and its attached agencies including the BoC.

The investigative-arm of the DoF found that Barros allegedly had amassed wealth which was “grossly disproportionate to his modest income as a civil servant.

They claimed that the accused likewise was not allegedly filing his SALN at the time prescribe by law and that he has no copies of his SALN for the years 1983 up to 2001.

“In 1981, in spite of having serve in the BoC for only one year, respondent had already dramatically increased his net worth by purchasing a house and lot and jewelries amounting to P130,000, despite the fact that at that time his gross salary was only P9,756 or roughly P813 per month before taxes,” the DoF-RIP said in their joint complaint-affidavit filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Barros likewise acquired numerous real properties and valuables, including the furniture set worth P60,000 and car accessories worth P50,000 in 1988 and a P1.5 million worth of house and lot in Parañaque City in 1989.

The acquisitions, according to DoF-RIP, were not declared in the SALN of the BoC agent for those years.

The DoF-RIP likewise questioned the supposed “vehicle buying spree” of the respondent of which the agency noted that the BoC agent “acquired, in quick succession, different vehicles amounting to P100,000, P60, 000, P250,000, P258,000, P100,000, P400,000, and P200,000 respectively.

“In this respect, it boggles the mind how respondent could justify, much less finance such a succession of expensive acquisitions, considering that respondent's annual gross salary at that time ranges only from P103,000 to P120,000 annually as shown by his Service Record while his wife has no declared regular income,” the DoF-RIP stressed.

“(The) respondent's brazen accumulation of wealth in the aggregate amount of P20,000,000 more or less, is clearly disproportionate to his means, is further underscored by the fact that respondent did not even include his ordinary family expenditures – including tuition fees of respondent's children – which, judging by respondent's standard of living could not be less than substantial,” it added.

In his defense, Barros denied such allegations as he submitted his SALNs for the calendar years of 1981, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2001.

Mella, in filing the charges against Barros before the Manila RTC, gave credence to the report of the DoF-RIP.

“Accused Victor Barros, a public officer, being Special Agent II of the Bureau of Customs, while in the performance of his official functions as such, committing the offense in relation thereto, and taking advantage thereof, did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously make a deliberate assertion of falsehood upon a material matter in his SALN,” she said.