BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin Magalong here appealed to market vendors to cooperate in the ongoing investigation of the anomaly involving market fees.

Magalong, in a letter dated July 20, asked merchants to come forward and submit available copies of official receipts of their arrival fees or “kwartais” from January 2020 to present.

“Your cooperation is very much needed to ferret out the truth in this ongoing investigation. If proven true, this practice of anomalous filling-out of Accountable Forms (AF) 51 by revenue collectors had been depriving the city government of the collection of lawful fees that could have been used for public service,” Magalong said.

He said official receipts from vendors will enable the city government to compare the original with the duplicate or triplicate copies and establish the integrity of amounts collected.

Copies of official receipts may be submitted to the Baguio City Police Office with the assurance that “any information gathered from (the vendors) will be treated with confidentiality.”

He said investigation has so far revealed that the employees manipulated the amounts reflected in the duplicate and triplicate copies of the receipts being submitted to the city treasury to make it appear that they collected lower fees than the actual amount collected that is reflected in the original official receipt.

The excess amounts had not been remitted to the city coffers.

As a result of the investigation, seven personnel of the market division under the City Treasury Office have so far been charged of malversation through falsification of public documents and falsification.

Magalong said that expect more cases to be filed in the ongoing investigation into what was described as a long-time syndicated corruption involving market collectors and merchants leading to embezzlement of public funds.

"For example, what they charged the merchant was P4,000 but what is reflected in the duplicate copy of the receipt to be submitted to the City Treasury is only P70, they pocketed the rest," Magalong said.

Last July 20, five employees of the City Treasury Office assigned at the city market as market collector and supervisor were charged with malversation through falsification of public documents and falsification by public official for padding receipts of collections from arrival fees or kwartais at the city market.

A similar case was filed three weeks earlier and another case is being prepared against four more collectors as investigations go high gear to ferret out the truth.

Magalong said that the city has launched another investigation, this time on the illegal transactions inside the market, particularly on the sub-leasing of market stalls which is prohibited under the city’s Tax Ordinance.

"This has been happening for a long time in the public market and our investigation is continuous even with retired and former employees. I'm sure all the evidence will come out and they won't be able to run. I hope they will all be charged and jailed for the amount of money they stole from the government," Magalong said.