Sunday, March 12, 2006
Complaints baseless: Mayor
By Victor L. Camion
BACONG, Negros Oriental -- Mayor Rodolfo Yee described as baseless the criminal and administrative complaints the three midwives filed against him and municipal health officer Dr. James Jed Rosales before the Ombudsman for the Visayas.
The complaints were for dishonesty, oppression, misconduct in office, gross negligence or dereliction of duty, and abuse of authority.
Yee received his copy of the Ombudsman resolution that gave him 10 days to file his counter-affidavit, last March 6.
Presenting evidences, the mayor clarified that complainants, casual-plantilla midwives Josephine Varuasa, Mila Austero, and Helen Tuballa had been paid their subsistence and laundry allowances for the period of January to June 2005.
"The problem with their unclaimed subsistence and laundry allowances for the second half of the year 2005 cannot be blamed on the municipal mayor whose duty is only to approve whenever a payroll and voucher for that purpose is submitted to his office for approval," the mayor told the Ombudsman.
He explained that before signing his approval, the payroll had to be processed and approved by the budget office, the treasurer's office, and the accounting office.
Yee said in the case of the complainants what he received were "raw payrolls" by mail and personal delivery for subsistence and laundry allowances for the months of July, August, and September 2005.
Moreover, he said, some of the attached daily time records did not bear the signature for approval of their office chief.
Yee added that the payrolls and vouchers had not been processed in the budget, treasurer, and accounting offices.
"Will the complainants expect me to approve these kinds of payrolls?" asked Yee.
In affidavit-complaint, Veruasa, Austero, and Tuballa accused the mayor and Rosales of violating the local government code, the Magna Carta for Public health workers, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the local ordinance of Bacong.
The three midwives requested the Ombudsman to investigate their complaints and put Yee and Rosales under preventive suspension to prevent the destruction, removal, and/or alteration of the records.
(March 12, 2006 issue)
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