Warning out vs spurious DECS checks

Education Secretary Raul Roco warned the public yesterday on fake payroll checks for teachers which, he revealed, were found circulating in Central Mindanao recently.

The spurious checks worth a total of P8,000, he said, were used in transactions with various department stores in North and South Cotabato and Cotabato City and deposited for clearing at the Landbank branch in Cotabato City.

Region 12 education director Estrella Abid Babano informed Roco that the checks had the department’s actual account number, but were signed by former Secretary Andrew Gonzalez and Undersecretary for Finance Antonio Valdez.

The fake checks, Babano added, misspelled Valdez’s name and were not among the checks issued by the Landbank branch to the regional office. — Sheila Crisostomo