Caloocan mayor faces plunder, graft raps

MANILA, Philippines – A senior citizen has filed charges against Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan with the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the allegedly overpriced birthday gift packs for the city’s elderly.

In a two-page complaint filed Friday, Teresita Manalo said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales should probe Malapitan’s role in the distribution of the gift packs.

She filed charges of plunder, graft, grave misconduct, dishonesty and violation of the Omnibus Election Code and Anti-Red Tape Act against the mayor, who is a member of the United Nationalist Alliance.

Manalo said she initially thought the gift pack she received – which contained half a kilo of spaghetti, tomato sauce, corned beef and cheese – came from Malapitan himself.

She claimed she later learned the money used to buy the items were taken from government funds and that each gift pack was supposedly allotted P2,000.

Manalo said she checked with a store and found that the contents of the gift pack would only be worth around P200.

She also learned that as a senior citizen, she is entitled to receive to receive P500 from the senior’s social fund from the local social welfare department, but she has not received any. 

When questions about how much the gift packs were really worth came out, a post on Manalo’s Facebook page stated that the packs were worth P339 or P340 each, she said.

“They say in their speeches that there are 350,000 senior citizens in Caloocan. If the budget for the gift pack is P340, where did the P140 go?” she stated in her complaint.

Manalo added that if all 350,000 senior citizens were given gifts, the P140 overprice would total P49 million.

Malapitan, however, said there is no evidence to back up the charges and the case was “pure harassment and black propaganda.”

He added that the P500 senior’s social fund is supposed to come from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. “The city (government) has nothing to do with it,” Malapitan said.