Apostol confronts Pelaez over complaint

CEBU, Philippines - Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol yesterday confronted Lapu-Lapu City mayoral candidate Efrain Pelaez in his office over the complaint the latter filed before the Office of the President.

Earlier, Pelaez filed criminal and administrative complaint for gross inefficiency and gross neglect of duty against Apostol for "inaction" on all his complaints filed against former mayor and now congressman Arturo Radaza. He reiterated the issue on ghost employees and ghost payroll and violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Apostol told Pelaez that he already acted on all the complaints and letters the latter filed.

Apostol yesterday asked Pelaez why the immediate filing of the complaint before the Office of the President, when Pelaez could have asked him about it first.

"I can give you all the updates. Almost 80 percent of your cases were recommended for filing. All cases were all out in our office," Apostol told Pelaez, adding that the act of filing the complaint is tantamount to "destroying the trust and confidence in the office."

Pelaez answered Apostol that indeed he has no trust and confidence in him. Pelaez said that it was only now that he knew that his complaints were acted. He said nobody ordered him to file a case against Apostol and he did it on his own.

The confrontation lasted almost five minutes, with the two just standing and exchanging words. Before the confrontation, Pelaez greeted Apostol and shook his hands.

Based on the document given by Apostol to the media, the cases filed by Pelaez were all acted upon: 16 different cases against different respondents.

Also yesterday, Pelaez lodged a complaint for plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against Congressman Arturo Radaza, former chairman of clean and green program and now Mayor Paz Radaza and barangay captains of Lapu-Lapu City-Rufo Bering, Isabelito Dumayla, Eduardo Cuizon and all others who allegedly participated in the payroll scam.

Pelaez said these cases were all brought up a long time ago but it was refiled now with strong evidence.

In his complaint, Pelaez said the Lapu-Lapu City Government allocated annually between P30 million to P45 million for a clean and green project since 2001.

"Under the said project, employees (casual employees) were supposed to receive P1,500 which is released every month through the barangay captains of the city. In the case of the "enumerators" they are supposed to receive P3,000 monthly," the complaint reads.

However, he said based on the affidavits of the employees it shows that they did not receive the full amount of P1,500 per month but only P500 and the "enumerators only received P1,000."

Pelaez said they submitted the signatures to the PNP Crime laboratory and found out that the payrolls may have been signed by the same person.  With that, he asked Apostol that he may act on the complaint.

In a press statement, Mayor Paz said with all the projects she implemented such as the construction of two-storey buildings for the ABC, tourism, OSCA, police headquarters, the upgrade of Olango hospital, the new MRF at Olango and others are a clear proof that they used City hall funds judiciously. (FREEMAN)