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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Collector captured
After more than a year in hiding, former Cebu City Hall collector Rebecca Mahusay was arrested yesterday afternoon in Basak, Mandaue City.
The hunt for Mahusay, 58, started after she failed to return from her vacation leave in June last year.
She has been blamed for the loss of P187,707.95 in government funds.
Mahusay, who is facing a charge of malversation of public funds, was arrested based on a warrant issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr.
She was caught in the house of her husband’s friend in Basak, past 5 p.m. She is now detained at the Basak police precinct and will be presented in court today.
The house where Mahusay stayed is about a kilometer from the police precinct.
Members of the barangay intelligence network reported her presence to the police.
SPO4 Aurillo Soliño said Mahusay arrived in Basak together with her husband, Federico, in the last week of September.
They stayed in the home of spouses Medina and Priscilo Recla, their friends and former neighbors in Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City.
On the run
But Medina said she and her husband never knew that Mahusay was facing a criminal case, because they had not seen each other since she and her family moved to Mandaue City in 1973.
“I was surprised when they arrived. They only brought one bag of clothes. I was even wondering why she was arrested,” Medina, 67, told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview last night.
She said Federico was sick and could hardly walk when the couple came to her house to beg that they be allowed to stay for some months.
Mahusay told Medina that her husband needed fresh air and a clean environment.
Since she had a room available, Medina allowed the couple to stay until last week, when Federico recovered. Federico left Mahusay and returned to their house in Hipodromo.
“He would just visit her to bring clothes,” Medina said, adding that all she knew about Mahusay was that she was in a lending business.
New rules
After Mahusay’s disappearance last year, section chiefs at the City Treasurer’s Office set up new measures in the processing of applications for leave of absence and the remittance of collections.
Liquidating officers Anya Chan and Norma Labra and cash receipts assistant division chief Joseph Reyes had been suspended for one month without pay, for failing to detect Mahusay’s shortages.
Mahusay had been allowed to go on vacation without having to account for her collections. (AIV)
(October 20, 2005 issue)
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