ILOILO CITY – The Sandiganbayan has suspended from office the mayor of Sara, Iloilo and two of his employees over graft charges filed against them for alleged misuse of public funds.
Sara Mayor Neptali Salcedo, municipal engineer Roel Salcedo and former municipal treasurer Edna Pacrim were suspended for 90 days in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Gregory Ong of the Sandiganbayan’s fourth division.
Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., who filed the complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, alleged that sometime in May 2006, the three officials connived with each other when they caused the payment of P300,000 for the construction of a farm-to-market road from Barangay Domingo to Barangay Muyco in Sara town and from Sitio Kapinayan, Domingo to Sitio Sincua in Lemery.
A report of the Commission on Audit (COA) showed that the projects were overpriced because it only involved the repairs and not the construction of new roads.
Tupas also filed 30 counts of malversation and falsification of public documents against the three for the P1.8-million labor payroll.
Graft charges were also filed against the three for authorizing the payment of P1 million to the Sara Caltex station for fuel and lubricant used in several road repair and expansion projects.
COA said there was an excess payment of P153,721 because the amount of fuel consumed for the projects was only worth P846,279.
Sara municipal legal officer James Balsomo said they have not received a copy of the Sandiganbayan discussion as of last Friday, July 6.
Balsomo said Salcedo will seek every legal remedy to oppose the 90-day preventive suspension, according to Danny Dangcalan and Jennifer Rendon.
Ombudsman Suspends Paulate
& Calalay
In Quezon City, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales suspended from office Quezon City councilors Roderick Paulate and Francisco Calalay Jr., and their aides for allegedly hiring “ghost” employees in 2010.
City councilors Paulate and Calalay, as well as their liaison officers Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde, are facing charges of Serious Dishonesty, Gross Neglect of Duty, Grave Misconduct, Falsification of Official Documents, and Conduct Grossly Prejudicial to the Best Interest of Service.
According to the order that Morales signed, there is “strong evidence of guilt on the part of the respondents.”
The Office of the Ombudsman said the two councilors endorsed the contractual employees and attested that they rendered service to the city. Investigators found, however, that “these fictitious personnel do not have birth records from the National Statistics Office, are not registered voters of Quezon City, have (not) secured NBI clearances, and are not known in the respective barangays where they allegedly reside or their indicated addresses where they purportedly reside do not exist.”
The Office of the Ombudsman said that the councilors’ endorsement “tends to show that they knowingly or willfully used their positions in placing under the employ of the local government of Quezon City, several ghost employees, and receiving their salaries, wages and other emoluments for their own personal gain.”
The liaison officers allowed themselves to be used when they received the salaries meant for the “ghost” employees, the Office of the Ombudsman said. The four will be on preventive suspension without pay for six months.
The Office of the Ombudsman said in May that Paulate and Calalay disbursed a total of P3.3 million for 59 “job order personnel” from July to November 2010. /MP
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