A resident of Brgy. Taculing in Bacolod City has filed administrative and criminal charges before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against Brgy. Captain Rommel Sanson and Josephine Gonzales, the barangay treasurer of Taculing.

In his complaint, Mario Asis, who charged the two for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, or R.A. 3019 and Art. 217 of the Revised Penal Code, claimed that he discovered that Sanson and Gonzales were involved in some anomalous transaction using the funds of the barangay.

He said that in August 2005, he was able to secure copies of the Audit Observation Memorandum prepared by the Commission on Audit which showed that there were check withdrawals made by Sanson and Gonzales in December 2004 that were not recorded in the journal of barangay transactions. The COA also later discovered that there were cash advances made for the monthly honoraria, bi-monthly barangay staff allowance and the monthly tanod allowance already covered by the 12-month period, he said, adding that COA declared the withdrawals from the bank unlawful.

CASH ADVANCES

Asis said it was also found out in the investigation that there were 13 cash advances/withdrawals each for honorarium and tanod allowances instead of only 12 (for a year), and 27 for the bi-monthly barangay staff allowance instead of 24. He said there were also five checks that were allegedly illegally withdrawn that were not directly encashed by Gonzales with the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Instead, the checks were endorsed/negotiated by Gonzales to a certain J. Montalbo with account no. 1-419-36444-0 with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Asis said. He added that the signatories of the checks were Sanson and Gonzales.

COA RECOMMENDATION

Asis said that, because of these alleged unlawful and illegal acts of the respondents, the COA recommended that Sanson and Gonzales, as signatories of the checks, immediately refund the amount of P424,461 that was withdrawn from the current account of Barangay Taculing, based on its Audit Observation Memorandum.

In its AOM dated May 26, 2005 the COA said that the checks withdrawn amounting to P424,461 were in excess of the legal obligations of Brgy. Taculing. It also recommended the suspension of the salary of Gonzales until she has submitted the 263 pieces of LBP checks based on its AOM dated Aug. 19.

Meanwhile, in an interview over Aksyon Radyo, Sanson denied the allegations, saying the charges were meant to discredit him. He said the motive of Asis is political and personal because he was affected by a demolition implemented in Purok 5, Brgy. Taculing during the Montelibano administration.

SECOND CASE

Sanson said Asis had bought a property in the area where the demolition was implemented by the city for the construction of a day care center. He said Asis has also filed a case of harassment against him which is still pending in court.

Gonzales has already been terminated, Sanson said. He said they discovered that there were LBP checks of the barangay which bounced because, he claimed, their signatures were forged. If the allegations against him were true, he would have been rich by now, he also said.*CGS

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