Lamitan City mayor accused of tampering 2012 budget

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The vice mayor of Lamitan, Basilan has asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to look into the city’s financial records as he accused the mayor, a former ally, of tampering the annual budget for 2012.

In a letter dated Nov. 2, 2012 to COA, Vice Mayor Arleigh Eisma, through his lawyer Rolando Quimbo, said once a special audit team is designated, witnesses would surface and provide details on alleged irregularities. 

Quimbo revealed that a graft complaint has been filed against Mayor Roderick Furigay for allegedly submitting a falsified 2012 budget to the city council.

Furigay, however, dismissed the allegations as political harassment by Eisma, a former party mate, saying the budget in question was a mere draft presented to the city council.

“That budget cannot be anomalous and manipulated because it passed the Sangguniang Panlungsod for review that he (Eisma) chaired,” he said.

“The allegations are but politically motivated,” he said, adding that Eisma, who is running for mayor of Lamitan City, is pitted against his wife.

Furigay, on his third and last term, has fielded his wife Rose to run for mayor against Eisma after he was given authority by the Liberal Party leadership.

Furigay said his lawyers are prepared to ans-wer all the allegations.

Eisma has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to immediately place Furigay under preventive suspension to preserve the integrity of pertinent records and encourage witnesses to come out.

Unless Furigay is suspended, Eisma, according to Quimbo, feared that the budget alterations could lead to the “commission of other irregularities which may constitute violations of penal laws, such as malversation and falsification of records.”

Eisma has submitted as evidence two copies of the city’s 2012 budget showing alleged dissimilarities in at least seven items.

Although both documents showed an identical amount of P312,076,000 as Lamitan’s 2012 budget, the report approved by the city council had no appropriation for repair and maintenance of heavy equipment.

On the other hand, the version submitted by the mayor allegedly allotted P6.35 million for the purpose.

Furigay also allegedly earmarked P5 million for a sports fest of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, while the city council’s measure had none for such an event.