City owes P2.5M in fuel products

ANGELES CITY – Angeles City owes more than P2.5 million in gasoline and fuel products from Magtoto Petron Station, the reason why some city owned vehicles are disallowed from getting fuel from the gas station.

IC Calaguas, chief of staff of Representative Carmelo Lazatin (1st district, Pampanga) claimed the City Government is stuck in debt.

Calaguas revealed government vehicles were not able to acquire gasoline because of the City Government’s inability to pay their obligations to the gasoline station.

“The only reason that the Mayor’s Office can still load gasoline is because they are using petty cash,” Calaguas said.

According to Commission on Audit (CoA) Circular No. 97-002 dated February 10, 1997, all payments must be made by check. Only payments in small amounts may be made by cash through the petty cash fund in the amount not exceeding P1,000.

The lawmaker alleged earlier this week that aside from the unpaid fuel liabilities the city also has unpaid obligations amounting to P600 million and is even banned from the Shanghai Restaurant because of their failure to pay for obligations incurred through the holding of Partido Abe Kapampangan events in the restaurant.

As of September 3, 2012, official records from the Office of the City Treasurer show that the city had an income of P16,084,424.08 but had expenditures amounting to P28,030,000, resulting in the city having a budget deficit of P11,945,575.92.

Meanwhile, Angeles City Administrator Dennis Albert Pamintuan reacted to Lazatin's use of a patient to hit Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan.

The city administrator said Lazatin need not fret and politically exploit the case of a certain Ronalyn Dayrit, the patient he referred to the Ospital Ning Angeles (ONA).

“Congressman Lazatin need not exploit the sick. There is no need for a guarantee letter from him. The City Government took care of Ms. Dayrit. Because she is classified as an indigent, we gave her a hefty discount,” Pamintuan said.

According to records of ONA, Dayrit only paid P500 out of her total bill of P4,877.

“For us, the important thing is, the patient was given all the assistance she needed whether it came from this administration or from Lazatin's camp,” Pamintuan said.

“We did not touch the P500,000 allocations from Lazatin’s pork barrel supposedly for ONA because there was no memorandum of agreement (MOA) between him and city hall for the disposition of the funds. Technically, we can use the funds without Lazatin’s go signal, but we wanted clear-cut guidelines for its use,” he said.

He admitted Lazatin wrote the City Government on July 24, 2012 informing of the issuance of a notice of cash allocation (NCA) in the name of the City Government.

“I personally informed Lazatin’s staff that they should prepare a MoA covering the use of the allocation,” Pamintuan recalled.

“No one pursued it on their part,” he said. “Now they are making a big issue out of it,” he added.

According to him, the city accountant also raised the need of a MOA for the liquidation of the funds.

“It is quite clear that Lazatin and his ilk are exploiting every opportunity to score political points. However, this is again a cheap shot, as most of their accusations against the administration of Mayor Pamintuan are,” he said. (Rey Navales)