By Glazyl Masculino
BACOLOD CITY - The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Bacolod filed criminal charges on Wednesday against a barangay chairman and four others from Barangay To-oy in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental for alleged irregularities in the distribution of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
(CIDG Bacolod / MANILA BULLETIN)
Chief Master Sgt. Ramiro Gocotano, CIDG-Bacolod head, said Barangay Chairman Tezardo Tejada, barangay secretary Josephine Mongcal, barangay health workers Jerelyn Gomez and Ma. Cristina Ni Fraz, and Day Care worker Gina Ortega were charged before the City Prosecutor’s Office for violation of Falsification of Public/Official Documents under Article 172 or Revised Penal Code, Republic Act (RA) 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and RA 11469 or the Bayanihan Act to Heal.
The charges stemmed from the complaint of five residents, accusing the respondents of allegedly tampering their SAP forms upon their completion, causing their disqualification to receive the cash aid from the national government, Gocotano said.
He said that the complainants alleged that there was connivance among the respondents in changing the monthly income they declared in their SAP forms to exclude them as qualified beneficiaries of the SAP allowance, which is being given by the national government to qualified beneficiaries considered as belonging to the poorest of the poor in society.
This was the second barangay in the province where officials are being investigated by the CIDG in relation to SAP anomalies.