3 city hall workers fired for alleged malversation

Mayor Tomas Osmeña the other day signed the termination order of the three casual employees who were said to have manipulated cedulas at the City Treasurer's Office.

City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo yesterday confirmed the termination of utility workers Gwendolyn Pacaña and Milafe Tayona and clerk Maricor Pedrosa.

The three will also be made to pay the losses that the city government incurred because of their alleged unscrupulous activities. The National Bureau of Investigation is still working on the criminal aspect of the case.

But in a separate interview, city administrator Francisco Fernandez said probe on the issue will not stop with the termination of the three employees as they will continue to dig deeper into the records at the City Treasurer's Office to determine how deep the alleged illegal transactions have gone.

Camarillo said they have already discovered about P260,000 worth of discrepancies with transactions involving community tax certificates payments.

Earlier, Camarillo's office found out that the P500 payment for the community tax certificate was only stipulated at P38.94 in the second and third copies.

The discrepancies were found in the copies of the community tax certificates of four companies including Axcess Pharma, Dayang Xiyi Phil. Inc., Best Choice Home Realty Development Corporation and PC Wise Corporation.

Camarillo also said earlier that they are looking into a possible syndicate behind this considering that the same modus operandi was carried out in the 80's.

While city hall apparently lost money with the controversy, Fernandez said the incident has served as a wake-up call for them to fast track Osmeña's order to open more permanent positions in city hall.

Fernandez said it is advantageous to have permanent employees because unlike casual employees, permanent employees are bonded, which means they have deposited a certain amount with the government, thus the bonding company can replenish the city government for whatever losses it incurred by fault of the employee.

With this system, it is the bonding company that would run after the responsible employees.

"This incident will serve as a wake-up call for us to appoint permanent employees," Fernandez said.

Of the 5,000 employees of the city government, only less than 2,000 are permanent. The rest are casual employees. - Joeberth M. Ocao