Friday, August 15, 2008 Daughter got dead ma's job, lawyer explains
A LAPU-LAPU City official contested the ombudsman’s finding that officials of the City Government and Barangay Agus are liable for graft, saying there was no ghost employee in the barangay.
It’s true that the name of a dead employee stayed in the payroll for nine months after her death in 2005, but her daughter took over her job and earned the honorarium, an official said.
Assistant City Attorney Michael Dignos said that when Eutiquia Ompad died last April 23, 2005 the barangay decided to get her daughter, Virginia, as her immediate replacement to keep the program going.
“Clearly, there was no damage done to the coffers of the City and there was no such thing as a ghost employee,” he said. Dignos cited the sworn statements of Virginia and Agus Barangay Captain Jovencio Lauron that Virginia took over her mother’s job from April to December 2005.
The ombudsman’s office has approved the filing of a criminal case against Mayor Arturo Radaza and nine other city officials for malversation of public funds through falsification of a public document. It also found the same officials administratively liable.
Vigilance
Lauron was found liable for issuing a certification dated Jan. 23, 2008 confirming the services rendered by 32 people, including Ompad, for December 2005.
“Unfortunately, this issue has been blown out of proportion during the election period in 2007. Again the ombudsman’s office is unwittingly being dragged by Pelaez into his cheap political gimmickry,” he said, referring to businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr.
Pelaez heads an anti-graft unit in Mactan.
He brought the Agus case to the attention of the ombudsman.
He has also said the discovery was only the tip of the iceberg, and that there are many graft cases at City Hall that can be documented.
Eutiquia received P1,500 a month as honorarium. After she died, the barangay hired her daughter Virginia, but did not bother to change the payroll, to avoid delaying the honoraria of all Clean and Green Project workers.
Local call
Lauron, in his sworn statement, cleared Radaza and the other nine City Hall officials of the issue, admitting he did not inform the city of his decision to replace Eutiquia with her daughter.
Virginia, on the other hand, said she did work for the honorarium she received from April to December 2005.
“When my mother died, I took over her job as an honorarium-paid worker of Barangay Agus, paid by the City Government,” she said in Cebuano in her statement sworn before City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim.
Mayor Arturo Radaza issued a memorandum last Wednesday directing City Administrator Teodulo Ybanez to review the mechanisms and procedures to improve efficiency and prevent any lapses in the payment of honoraria.
Charged by the anti-graft body along with Radaza were his executive secretary Rolando Duero, City Treasurer Elenita Catagcatag, City Accountant Buenaventura Igot, Judith Furuta, Helen Dungog, Maridel Dignos, Victoria Andoy, Noel Baguio and Gloria Dano. (AIV)
