BAGUIO CITY – A total of eight city government employees have been charged over the anomalous collection of “kwartais” or collection fees at the city market.
On Sept. 16, the city government filed charges against three more “kuwartais” or arrival fee collectors – Liza Palomar, Liberty Galdayen, and Alberto Dalupan.
Additional cases were filed against three employees charged on July 20. Five city market employees were charged with malversation and falsification of public documents – Jonathan Lubina, market supervisor; Randy Ricana, revenue collector; and Benjie Chocyogen, Gerald Rimanda, and Noel Flora, all assigned to the city market under the City Treasurer’s Office.
Cases were filed by City Market Division officer-in-charge Marieta Alvarez on behalf of the city government with the Baguio City Police Office as the investigators.
The charges stemmed from the discovery of tampered duplicate receipts in arrival fees collected from merchants at the city market which resulted in the removal of additional fake receipts involving more employees who are now respondents in cases.
Lt. Col. Emmanuel Nead, chief of the BCPO-Crime Investigation and Detection Management Unit (CIDMU), said Alvarez discovered tampering with duplicate copies of receipts being made by deployed Revenue Collector Clerks II when they did not remit the exact amount paid by the traders and businessmen by declaring the wrong amount of payment in the duplicate copies of the official receipts.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong began the investigation and filing of cases in court against employees involved last July.
Magalong said it is estimated that as much as P50 million from market collections has been lost in the past 10 years due to the interference or padding of government receipts by the accused.
He said up to 20 employees will be charged with graft and corruption while the BCPO investigation continues.