BCPO, city ready malversation case vs. 6-8 more market employees

The Baguio City Police Office and the city government are set to file another court case against six to eight more employees assigned at the city market for alleged involvement in syndicated corruption. 

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong announced today, Sept. 12 that the BCPO is preparing the documents for the filing of malversation through falsification of public documents and falsification by public officials against the employees over the collection of arrival fees or “kwartais.” 

Earlier in July, five employees were slapped with similar charges in what the mayor described as a long-time syndicated corruption involving city market employees and merchants leading to embezzlement of public funds.

“The first case is now moving and I believe that we have a very strong case supported by the pieces of evidence that were presented,” he said.

“We expect to charge a total of 15 persons in this case and we will go after all of them including those who have already retired from the service,” the mayor said.

The case stemmed from the investigation initiated by the mayor on the alleged connivance involving revenue collectors and supervisors to steal from the market fees collected from arrival fees.

The city collects said fees from merchants to allow them sell their goods as provided under the city’s Tax Code.

During the investigation, it was found out that the collected amount does not match from the amount reflected in the duplicate receipts submitted to the City Treasury Office. 

Counting all the years that this fraud has been happening, we can say that the city’s loss in revenues now amounts to millions of pesos, the mayor said. – JMPS