Sagay City Mayor Narciso Javelosa, Jr. revealed that their City Treasurer is under investigation relative to the P7.3 million health emergency allowance (HEA) for doctors and other frontliners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Javelosa said he looked for funds so he was able to release the said allowances after he received a formal complaint from the recipient doctors and other health workers for the alleged failure of City Treasurer JuvyPinongan to release it on August 16, 2024.
Javelosa said the total amount of P22 million was downloaded to the City of Sagay for the HEA. However, Pinongan allegedly released the health workers having smaller allowances while most of the doctors were not able to receive them.
Javelosa said he has talked to Pinongan personally about the matter but she told him that she did not touch or spend the money. "She said the money is in the vault at her office however she forgot the number combination to open the vault," Javelosa said.
The mayor said he is waiting for the city legal offices advise on when to open the vault to finally discover if the money is still there.
Javelosa also said that Pinongan is still reporting to her work but he already assigned a lawyer to watch over her work pending appropriate action to be taken by the city government against her.
Javelosa said he finds it unbelievable for Pinongan to forget the number combination of the vault which she has operated for several years already.
Pinongan started to work as city treasurer in 2018. (TDE)