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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – The barangay captain of Handumanan was charged before the Sangguniang Panlungsod for alleged payroll padding.
Ma. Febe Legaspi was facing administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas but the latter referred her case to the city council.
Legaspi must submit a counter-affidavit to give way to a committee hearing, said Councilor Caesar Distrito, chairman of the committee on laws, ordinances and good government.
Former Handumanan barangay treasurer Reynaldo Alconga accused Legaspi of dishonesty, abuse of authority, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
Alconga filed the charges before the Ombudsman on July 27 through his counsel Lorenzo Alminaza. But the Ombudsman found the city council to be a more appropriate forum, said Distrito.
Alconga questioned the propriety of granting environment and sanitary job order workers a one-month bonus.
He claimed the job order workers’ payroll from October to December 2015 had been padded to gather an amount for the bonus.
Alconga said the allowances the workers received during the period were “much less than what were reported in the official time book and payroll recorded in the books of accounts of the barangay.”
The complainant claimed the allegedly padded amount — P133,060 — was released to the covered workers on Dec. 28, 2015.
Prior to the release, Alconga said he consulted with Barangay Administrator Karlon Ocalena, who agreed that the transaction was not valid and constituted payroll padding.
Moreover, the purpose was illegal, too, since job order workers were not entitled to bonuses, said the former barangay treasurer.
In his complaint, Alconga stated he was appointed barangay treasurer on Dec. 1, 2013 and served until his resignation on March 22 this year.
“Ocalena accompanied me in explaining to Legaspi the apparent impropriety of the aforementioned transactions, but she (Legaspi) insisted that her orders shall have to be implemented and those who objected to it may either resign or be fired for not following their superior’s orders,” said Alconga.
Alconga conceded for fear that he, too, may lose his job, his only means to support this family, he claimed.
Legaspi cannot be reached for comment as of this writing. Her mobile phone number cannot be reached./PN
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