Saturday, July 26, 2008 Ex-tanods rap bry. chief over rice distribution
A GROUP of former barangay tanods filed a complaint against the incumbent barangay captain of Pahina-San Nicolas for giving to his officials rice that City Hall gave for people who served in the previous term.
Ricardo Calungag, together with 34 other tanods hired during the term of former village chief Victoriano Go, faced Barangay Captain Antonio Caruzca before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas yesterday.
They lost their appointments last November, the month Caruzca and his council assumed their posts.
NFA rice
Caruzca, during the conference presided by Graft Investigator Rose Tongco, confirmed the release of a sack of rice bought from the National Food Authority (NFA) to each new employee of the barangay.
He denied there was anything illegal about the release.
He said a memorandum from Cebu City Councilor Eugenio “Jingjing” Faelnar, the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president, gave barangay captains full discretion on the release of the rice subsidy.
The complainants, however, stressed that a March 27, 2008 order prepared by Faelnar and approved by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña declared that the rice subsidy City Hall provided were to be given to “barangay officials and staff incumbent as of 2006.”
While Faelnar later issued another order, dated April 11, 2008, instructing barangay captains to come up with a list of “deserving and qualified barangay officials and personnel for rice subsidy,” Osmeña did not give his approval.
It was only after the denial that Faelnar issued a third order.
“In order to make things clear, let us please release it (the subsidy) to the barangay and let the barangay captains concerned be responsible for the distribution for they are the ones responsible for its liquidation,” the third order, which Osmeña approved, read.
Promise
During the conference, Caruzca defused tension by promising that the next release of rice subsidy from City Hall will be given to the officials of the previous term.
Tongco, on the other hand, said she’ll terminate the fact-finding investigation because of the agreement reached by the parties at the end of the conference.
This, however, will not prejudice the refiling of the same complaint if Caruzca reneges on the promise. (KNR)
