BAGUIO CITY – Eight more city government employees assigned to the city market are set to be charged with malversation due to their alleged involvement in syndicated corruption.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the Baguio City Police Office is now preparing the documents for the filing of malversation through falsification of public documents and falsification by public officials against the employees over the collection of arrival fees or ‘kwartais’ at the city market.

Earlier in July, five employees were slapped with similar charges in what Magalong described as a long-time syndicated corruption involving city market employees and merchants leading to embezzlement of public funds.

"The first case is now moving and I believe that we have a very strong case supported by the pieces of evidence that were presented," said Magalong.

"We expect to charge a total of 15 persons in this case and we will go after all of them including those who have already retired from the service,” he added.

The case stemmed from the investigation initiated by the Mayor on the alleged connivance involving revenue collectors and supervisors to steal from the market fees collected from arrival fees.

The city collects those fees from merchants to allow them sell their goods as provided under the city’s Tax Code.

During the investigation, it was found out that the collected amount does not match with the amount reflected in the duplicate receipts submitted to the City Treasury Office.

“Counting all the years that this fraud has been happening, we can say that the city’s loss in revenues now amounts to millions of pesos,” Magalong pointed out.