By MANLY M UGALDE
Correspondent
LIGAO CITY, Albay: Regional Trial Court
(RTC) judge here has ordered the garnishment of less than P1 million funds of
the sleepy Oas town in Albay for the local government unit’s (LGU) refusing to
pay the salary of a town official who
turned whistle-blower.
But the whistleblower said though the
court order was in his favor, the RTC has not compelled the town mayor and the
Oas LGU to pay his claims equivalent to 18 months’ salary as of the end of last
September.
The town has an annual budget of P72
million, according to documents, and can easily pay the whistle-blower’s unpaid
salary.
Court records showed that Oas municipal planning and development officer
(MPDO) Jose Carlos Torres filed a complaint in court against Mayor Gregorio
Ricarte for withholding his salaries starting May 2011 after he exposed an
alleged extraordinary bloated land deal worth P15 million, the actual and real cost of which was only P5
million.
Added to his expose’ were several
scandals involving water project payment and purchase of allegedly bloated
multi-cab units. Investigation of these incidents is pending in the Office of
the Ombudsman.
Ricarte denied the charge and pointed to
his accuser as among the town’s alleged shady-deal operators during his
predecessors’ time.
Nevertheless, Ricarte, using an
executive order he issued, ordered his treasurer and accountant to withhold
Torres’ salaries on allegations the whistleblower went on Absence Without Leave
(AWOL), citing the municipal employees’ log book.
Torres said he never went on AWOL and
that he had been attending seminars during the alleged period of his AWOL.
He said the mayor merely replaced him as an
MPDO and was placed on floating status after getting the ire of the mayor for
allegedly resisting corruption in the town.
Torres said he had been the town MPDO
for three decades and was never required to sign in the log book.
He said he was a mid-level officer whose
duties require him to be in the field.
He said the log book requirement came
only after he became a whistleblower
In his order dated Aug 3, 2012 Judge
Alben Rabe of RTC Branch 12 said Ricarte committed violations and ordered him
to release the withheld salaries of Torres from May 2011 to Sept 2012 or a
total of P884,155.
Torres said Ricarte ignored the judge’s
order, prompting Torres to seek a mandamus order which the court granted in its
order dated Sept. 26, 2012.
Ricarte went to the Court of Appeals but
pending the CA resolution, Judge Rabe ordered on Oct 10, 2012, the garnishment
of the town’s funds equivalent to Torres’ unpaid salaries in the town’s
depository at the Land Bank Ligao City Branch.
Torres said that despite of the court
order, he has yet to receive the garnished money, saying that the town’s
LandBank account no longer has the fund to pay his salary.
He claimed the mayor was manipulating
the situation to make him suffer.
He said: “I wish the Office of the
Ombudsman would find the time to decide n the five major criminal and
administrative cases I filed against the mayor more than a year ago.”
He claimed the cases are backed by
documents he presented. – Business Mirror
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