Tuesday, July 17, 2007 NSO vault stripped of P230T cash
SOME P230,000 worth of a day’s collections at the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Cebu City have been reported missing.
NSO 7 Director Lilia Tandoc said the money was the agency’s collections for June 15 from applications for various certifications being processed at the NSO’s Serbilis Center.
The money was left in the custody of Felixberto Sato.
Tandoc, in a radio dyLA interview, said Sato learned that the money was nowhere to be found when he reported for work last June 18. Sato reportedly insisted that he locked the vault before he went home.
Only the security officer has the key to the main door, which leads to the vault. There were also reportedly no signs of a forcible entry.
The incident prompted the agency to let all its employees and three security guards who were on duty between June 15 and June 18 undergo a polygraph test.
One guard, however, no longer showed up after the polygraph was taken, fuelling speculations that he knows something about the missing money, Tandoc said.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Civil Registrar Evangeline Abatayo said two investigators from the NSO Manila office are in town to probe the incident.
The National Bureau of Investigation is conducting its own probe as well.
Abatayo said that aside from the NSO having to prepare for its transfer its office to Sudlon in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, the disappearance of the P230,000 may have something to do with the closure of the agency’s office in the city.
Applications
With the NSO Serbilis Center in the city no longer operational, Abatayo said the NSO is now coordinating with the Cebu City Government for the implementation of the Batch Request Entry System (Breqs) and accept applications for documents like birth, death and marriage certificates.
Initially though, the Office of the Local Civil Registrar, located at the City Health Department compound on Gen. Maxilom Ave. Extension, will start accepting applications starting today.
Those who have filed their requests with the NSO Cebu City office, however, can still claim their requests there.
Aside from the Cebu City Government, 12 other local government units (LGUs) in Cebu have committed to implement the Breqs starting July 25.
Cebu City, however, will start ahead of the other LGUs as it has to accommodate the requests that could no longer be attended to by the NSO office in Talisay City.
“We can’t wait for the July 25 schedule,” Abatayo said in the radio dyLA interview.
Once the Breqs is already implemented, the NSO office will no longer accept walk-in clients for applications. Payments will have to be made through accredited banks like the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“They did it on purpose not to accept payments anymore. It’s better for clients nga mag-bank-to-bank na lang. Kay every time mohatod og (sends) requests (from LGU to NSO Cebu City), mokuyog ang tawo (the person will accompany) bringing the money. It’s very risky,” Abatayo said.
Costlier
Abatayo, however, said that with the Breqs, the cost for the issuance of documents will cost more.
She said that they will need to ask P50 more for every document issued; birth certificates will now cost P175 instead of P125.
Securing the certificates will also take longer because the local civil registry office will be the one to encode the names of the applicants and their payments and e-mail these to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) 7 office.
The Neda, in turn, will forward the data to NSO Manila. It will be the NSO Manila that will send the documents to Neda 7, which will send documents to the local civil registry office.
The whole process will take at least five working days.
In the meantime, the public can apply for the issuance of birth, marriage and death certificates at the nearest Breqs centers in the different towns and cities.
Tandoc, in a separate interview, said they received the order from NSO Administrator Carmelita Bricta to activate the Breqs centers effective yesterday.
In Cebu, Tandoc said that Breqs are located in the cities of Bogo, Talisay, Carcar and Danao and the towns of Argao and Dalaguete.
The receiving outlet for Breqs is at the Neda building, which is manned by NSO central office personnel.
Tandoc said the temporary transfer of NSO transactions while they are preparing to move to the Capitol-owned IPHO Building near the Ecotech Center in Sudlon, Cebu City.
NSO will pay rent to the Cebu Provincial Government at P300,000 a month for its property that includes a building with an area of 1,207 square meters, a warehouse with an area of 134 square meters and a tennis court with an area of 390 square meters.
NSO will put a roof over the tennis court so it can be converted into a waiting area for applicants.
“We expect to resume full operations by December. We cannot immediately transfer before August because of the ongoing operation for census of the population,” Tandoc said.
Tandoc said they will tally the actual count of the population from Aug. 1 to 29 before the result will be submitted to President Arroyo.
The result of the census will become official only if signed by the President.
Tandoc said that once they move to Sudlon, fixers operating at their office on M.J. Cuenco Ave., Cebu City will be eradicated.
“We failed to totally eradicate the fixers at M.J. Cuenco because they were operating on the street. But because the Sudlon area is a compound, all fixers will be barred from entering the place,” Tandoc said.
Although the rent for their existing office is lesser than what they will pay Capitol, this is still advantageous because the Sudlon office has a total of 3,776 square meters while that in the present has only 900 square meters.
NSO and Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia are set to sign the lease contract by July 24. (RCT/EOB)
