Barangay captain, treasurer facing malversation charges

Charges for malversation of funds were filed before the regional trial court yesterday against a Naga City barangay captain and his treasurer for allegedly embezzling government funds.

Overall deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro has approved the filing of a case for violation of Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code against Cantao-an barangay captain Mercedarius Alforque and barangay treasurer Pablita Candol.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by a certain Celso R. Aliganga and three barangay councilmen of Cantao-an.

Records showed that based on the payroll, the respondents are conniving with each other to make it appear that the barangay had spent P2,000 for the honorariums of Juanita Bacarro, Aurelia Villasencio and Virgilia Laput.

It was reflected in the payroll that the three women are barangay health workers when in fact they are not. They three also denied having received the amount intended for them.

The graft investigators rejected the alibi and denial of the accused that they did not commit malversation because when the copy of the payroll was submitted to the Naga City accounting office, the corresponding space for the signatures of Baccaro, Villasencio and Laput were not signed.

They believed that it was Aliganga who manipulated and altered the documents and just put the blamed on them.

But the graft investigators managed to secure copies of the payroll that was submitted to the Commission on Audit bearing the signed names of the three alleged barangay workers.

“The forgeries, therefore, were already affixed on the payrolls as early as at the time of payment when the payrolls were still in the custody and control of herein respondents,” said graft investigator Sarah Jo Vergara. – Rene U. Borromeo/LPM