Friday, November 10, 2006
Legal office: Warrant on worker faces delay
By Danilo V. Adorador III
THE regional office of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already stepped into the investigation against the employees who may be in complicit in the tax embezzling case involving a City Hall employee.
NBI's entry into the three-week-old probe came a week after falsification charges were filed against Remedios Zamayla, a tax collection supervisor at the City Finance Department.
Zamayla was accused of manipulating tax receipts to make the paid taxes appear lower than the original amount -- supposedly pocketing the difference.
Evidences and other relevant documents uncovered by the City Finance Department and the City Legal Office into the alleged irregularities were turned over to the probe agency in a meeting with NBI-Northern Mindanao Director Virgilio Mendez Thursday, said City Legal Officer Cancio Guibone.
But a warrant of arrest against Zamayla, who has since disappeared since she took a leave of absence early October, may as yet be delayed for "a couple of weeks," added Guibone.
He earlier expressed disappointment that malversation charges can't be filed against the employee because the latter was not anymore an accountable officer at the time the alleged falsifications occurred.
Guibone explained that Zamayla's case will still be reviewed by the Ombusdman, if the City Prosecutor's Office -- which is at the moment evaluating the charges--finds prima facie to pursue the charges.
But Guibone is confident that the evidences they have submitted were enough to establish guilt, noting that Zamyla's disappearance initially proves she committed wrongdoings.
Non-transferable
Zamayla was relieved of her tax collection duties early last year, but had clandestinely continued collecting taxes using the accountable forms of other five tax collectors, City Treasurer Lino Daral earlier said.
Guibone said the NBI's investigation will focus on whether the five tax collectors had consented to Zamayla's use of their respective accountable forms, even if the practice violated internal regulations.
Daral in June last year issued a memorandum reminding tax collectors that accountable forms such as tax receipts are "non-transferable."
The NBI will also look into the extent of Zamayla's alleged falsifications of tax receipts, and whether she has been practicing this type of irregular act even before June 2005 -- the time the first supposed falsification occurred as indicated in the uncovered original tax receipts.
Zamayla is said to have been employed at the City Hall for nearly 30 years, though it was not known whether she had worked in the Finance Department throughout her employment.
Daral Thursday said the City Finance Department is communicating with all taxpayers whose payments they found to have allegedly been falsified by Zamayla.
The falsified receipts totaled P980,452.71, documents unearthed from Zamayla's transactions from June 2005 to September this year show.
The five employees, identified as Delia Poncardas, Jean Gamaylo, Arsenieto G. Manseguiao, Hyrence Garcia, and Elvis Reyes, have all denied involvement into Zamayla's alleged wrongdoings in their respective written explanations to Daral.
Most of them accused Zamayla, then their immediate superior, of coercing them into giving their accountable forms to her, while others said the accountable forms went into Zamayla's hands without their knowledge.
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (November 10, 2006 issue)
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