THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) vowed Wednesday, August 15, to look into the report that the city government of Manila has 27 non-existent villages that purportedly received P108 million in public funds.
DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo Año made the remark after the Commission on Audit (COA), in its 2017 annual report, found that Manila City had named 27 "ghost" villages as recipients of real property tax shares totaling P108.733 million.
"Magka-conduct tayo ng investigation diyan sa mga report na ‘yan. Alam niyo naman ang ating emphasis sa admnistrasyong ito, corruption. So wala tayong sasantuhin dito," he told Palace reporters.
(We will conduct an investigation on that report. You know that our emphasis here in this administration is corruption. So there will be no saints here.)
"We just need the information, the data, and we will launch an investigation," he added.
The COA revealed that Manila City allotted 30 percent of its tax collection to 923 villages, even though there are only 896 villages listed in the factbook of the Liga ng mga Barangay, thus indicating that 27 were non-existent.
State auditors sought an explanation from the city government over the allocation of real property tax shares to the 27 bogus villages.
Ensuring that the DILG would investigate the matter, Año said that the department was not sparing anyone, as it aready started a probe against alleged 250 erring local officials based on complaints received through the government's 8888 hotline.
"For your information, we launched the Bantay Kaagapay or Bantay Kurapsyon and we have about 250 local chief executives that are being investigated now just based from the complaints sa 8888 at sa mga information na nakukuha namin from the field," he said.
(For your information, we launched the Bantay Kaagapay or Bantay Kurapsyon and we have about 250 local chief executives that are being investigated now just based from the complaints on 8888 and the information we're getting from the field.) (SunStar Philippines)