BAGUIO CITY – Five market revenue collectors here have been charged with multiple counts of malversation thru falsification of public documents and multiple counts of falsification by public officer for allegedly defrauding the city government of almost P50 million in revenues from market collections.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong here, together with Marieta Alvarez, officer-in-charge, City Market Division, and Police Col. Glenn Lonogan, city police director, filed the cases before the City Prosecutor’s Office Wednesday, July 20.

Named respondents were Jonathan Lubina, 42, market supervisor; Randy Ricana, revenue collector, Clerk II; Benjie Chocyogen, 41; Gerald Rimando, 45, and Noel Flora, 59, all assigned to the city market division under the City Treasurer’s Office.

The cases were filed after tampered duplicate receipts were discovered which further resulted in the discovery of more counterfeit receipts involving the respondents.

During investigation, some of the market collectors involved revealed that Lubina instigated tampering the receipts to enable them to pocket money from the collections.

As a result, Alvarez looked at previously submitted Daily Statement of Collections and Accountable Forms (DSCAF) that should have been signed by the duty supervisor, resulting in the discovery of the false DSCAF report signed by Lubina.

Alvarez discovered that duplicate copies of receipts made by Ricana did not match the exact amount paid by a merchant. The wrong amount paid was reflected on the duplicate copy of the official receipt.

Magalong said it is estimated that up to P50 million from market collections have been lost in the past 10 years due to the tampering or padding of government receipts by the accused.

“They should be jailed, millions of pesos were lost from the treasury due to their corruption through fraudulent government receipts," said Magalong.

Magalong cited that from one collector, the original copy of the receipt showed that a merchant paid P3,000, but in the duplicate copy, only P120 was indicated and submitted to the Treasurer's Office.

He added that up to 20 employees will be charged with graft and corruption while the BCPO investigation continues, after city market merchants voluntarily submitted receipts to verify if the amount stated in the duplicate copy matches.

“This corruption has been going on for a long time, in fact there are those involved who have retired but we will still prosecute them. Next week when we get the details, we will have six more charges,” Magalong said.