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Ombudsman preventively suspends 2 Quezon City councilors
09 July 2012

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ordered the preventive suspension of Quezon City councilors Francisco Calalay, Jr. and Roderick Paulate, and Liaison Officers Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde, in connection with the administrative case filed against them for allegedly hiring “ghost employees.”   

The four are facing charges of Serious Dishonesty, Gross Neglect of Duty, Grave Misconduct, Falsification of Official Documents, and Conduct Grossly Prejudicial to the Best Interest of Service, before the Office of the Ombudsman.

In an 11-page Order signed on July 5, 2012, Ombudsman Morales found sufficient grounds to place them under preventive suspension for six (6) months without pay. 

The Order found “strong evidence of guilt on the part of the respondents  x x x [as t]he respondent City Councilors’ indorsement of these contractual employees to the Legislative Department and their attestation that these employees rendered services, tend to show that they knowingly or willfully used their positions in placing under the employ of the local government of Quezon City, several ghost employees, and receiving their salaries, wages and other emoluments for their own personal gain[; and] for respondent Alvarez and Bajamunde, as liaison officers, they allowed themselves to be used by the respondent City Councilors when they collected and received the salaries, wages and other emoluments of these contractual ghost employees” who occupy positions like district coordinators, field investigators, and office aides.   

Complainant Field Investigation Office alleges that the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have no records of birth or records of NBI Clearances, respectively, of a number of these contractual persons.  Moreover, barangay chairmen, barangay employees and some barangay residents of the place where the contractual employees supposedly reside, claim, by way of certifications and sworn statements, that the latter are not residents thereof, or that their declared addresses are not found thereat, or that they are not registered voters in the barangay.

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