Monday, August 18, 2008 Mongaya: Employing ghosts By Anol Mongaya
THREE city mayors in Metro Cebu are now under fire for allegedly hiring ghosts: Mayor Soc Fernandez of Talisay City, Mayor Jonas Cortes of Mandaue City and Mayor Arturo Radaza of Lapu-Lapu City.
The Commission on Audit has questioned the spending of P2.3 million a month for job-order employees by Mayor Fernandez of Talisay City. As a result, the City’s job-order employees are now required to submit daily time records to weed out the ghosts. So far, the ghostbusters still have to catch one.
In Mandaue City, Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna wants to scrutinize the list of 2,000 job-order employees before approving the request of Mayor Cortes for an additional budget of P35 million to pay for their salaries. He noted that the council had earlier approved P67.1 million for the salaries of job-orders. If the council approves this recent request incorporated in a supplemental budget, the total will reach P102.1 million.
From the number of employees who frequent the Mandaue City Hall every day, the vice mayor suspects most of those listed are ghosts. He said the council majority will immediately give their okay to the budget once they are satisfied that the list contains real people actually doing work for various City Hall projects. Nevertheless, he thinks the City does not need 2,000 people to work on development projects only worth P59.4 million.
In fairness, Mayor Cortes said he will immediately furnish the City Council with the list. Let’s see if the mayor’s list actually contains names of actual employees. If they are, I’m curious what they are doing at City Hall. And what progress have these 2,000 employees done in implementing the P59.4-million worth of development projects? Syaro og wa gyud tay makitang agi kon nangtrabaho gyud ni sila?
The “big Pugapo” Mayor Radaza, meanwhile, is under fire again owing to a case filed by his nemesis businessman Efrain Pelaez referred to by Boy’s men as the “New Magellan.” Pelaez has unearthed a case involving a certain Eutiquia Ompad of Barangay Agus. The 58-year-old died on April 23, 2005 but payment for her salary went on until December 2005. Pelaez blamed Mayor Radaza for this and filed a complaint at the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.
However, Agus Barangay Captain Jovenio Lauren claimed responsibility for the “oversight” saying he did not mind then because Eutiquia’s daughter Virginia took her place. Virginia, who became the family breadwinner needed her dead mother’s salary, refused to complain about the “oversight” because she actually worked and received the compensation. To stem further controversy, Mayor Radaza had ordered a change in the job order procedures.
I think Pelaez, who said he won’t run for Congress despite an announcement by Rep. Nerry Soon-Ruiz, should scour again for another issue. This one might hit the barangay captain for perjury but not the mayor.
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Certain personalities inside the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) might end up the only ones left as the accused in the controversial overpriced lamp post case with the recent reinvestigation move of the Office of the Ombudsman. After going over the charge sheet filed against DPWH regional officials and engineers and two Metro Cebu mayors, I realized that they were actually accused of entering into a contract that was “manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the Republic of the Philippines.”
I am a mere layman but common sense tells me that the best proof against these officials is their signature on the contract entered.
Now my question, is signing the program of works and estimates (Powe) the same as signing the contract? If so, why were the lamp posts also put up in Cebu City when Mayor Tomas Osmeña did not sign the Powe?
This led me to suspect that this could be the reason why the Office of the Ombudsman moved for the reinvestigation of the case. It was not a lawyer of Mayor Teddy Ouano who asked. It seems the case that led to the suspension of two mayors in 2007 was actually weak.
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In taking the lead in the opposition to the memorandum of agreement that seeks to create the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the Liberal Party headed by presidentiable Sen. Mar Roxas should be careful. I think the agenda of the Arroyo administration is crystal clear. The administration obviously wants to use the BJE and the proposed alternatives like the Bangsamoro autonomy within a federal framework of government to push for charter change fast.
The conduct of charter change before the 2010 elections spells will expectedly lead to term extensions. I think this is the agenda for the whole brouhaha
(Check out my blog “In Between Columns” at www. inbetweencolumns.wordpress.com)
