THE Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed for lack of evidence the perjury and ill-gotten wealth charges filed against Bureau of Customs -- Enforcement and Security Service Director Nestorio B. Gualberto.

However, the Ombudsman found probable cause to prosecute for violation of “The Code of Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.”

The case arose from a complaint filed by the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office against Gualberto for his alleged failure to declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) certain real properties registered his name, his wife and two daughters. He was also charged under Republic Act No. 1379-An Act Declaring Forteiture in Favor Of the State Any Property Found to Have Been Unlawfully Acquired By Any Public Officer Or Employee And Providing For The Proceeding Therefor.

The Ombudsman said the prosecution failed to show that the acquisition of the properties by Gualberto is disproportionate to his legitimate income . No evidence was introduced by the complainant to show that it would be impossible and improbable for Gualberto to have acquired the subject properties.” Gualberto was still in active service when he acquired the property in 2002. It is presumed that he could afford to finance the acquisition of the said properties Ombudsman concluded.

On the properties said to be registered under his two daughter’s name, Maria Elizabeth and Maria Carmelita Gualberto, the Ombudsman said the evidence presented by the parties disclosed that they could afford to pay the amount that was used to purchased the said properties, as they inherited a considerable amount from their deceased maternal grandparents.

While it is true that the said properties were aquired at the time the two daughters were not yet employed and had no income, the Ombudsman believed the daughters’ claim that they paid the properties out of the share they had received from their inheritance in the amount of P100,000.

The money they received as representatives of their deceased mother Maria Luisa Herrera-Gualberto is more than enough to pay the whole purchased amount of the said properties.

The Gualbertos were able to prove by presenting the Extrajudicial Settlement with Absolute Sale executed by the compulsory heirs of the deceased Zorobabel F. Herrera, whose heirs include the mother of the two daughters of Director Gualberto.