NE mayor, 3 others sued over P100M GSIS money

By Liam Anacleto

CABANATUAN CITY  – A municipal mayor in Nueva Ecija and three other town officials have been charged for alleged non-remittance of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) premiums of employees and unliquidated cash advances and disbursements worth at least P100 million.

Charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for Luzon were Quezon Mayor Mariano Cristino Joson, municipal treasurer Anacleta Arucan, municipal accountant Rona Joson and municipal budget officer Leilani Domingo.

Joson, a former vice governor, is the husband of first district Rep. Josie Manuel-Joson who is running for governor against re-electionist Gov. Aurelio Umali.

He is running for Congress in the upcoming May polls to take his wife’s place.

The mayor’s camp dismissed the complaint as  political harassment.

“It is a sign of desperation on the part of the Umalis,” his wife said. 

The congresswoman said the local government has forged a memorandum of agreement with the GSIS for the payment of GSIS premiums of municipal employees.

 “In fact, the municipality of Quezon is in a much better position now than the provincial capitol which has not forged a MOA with the GSIS. It is the Capitol which is guilty of non-remittance, certainly not Mayor Joson and not the municipality of Quezon,” she added.

The charges were filed by former municipal assessor Ruperto Libunao, who accused Joson and the three other town officials of violation of Republic Act 8291 or the GSIS Act of 1997 and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Libunao filed a separate administrative complaint against Joson before the SangguniangPanlalawigan.

Libunao is the running mate of mayoralty candidate Fred Hermoso, an ally of Umali.

The complaint cited that under Section 6 of RA 8291, the respondents are required to collect from the employees their monthly GSIS contributions and remit the same to the GSIS within 10 days of the month.

Under RA 8291, the remittance of GSIS contributions by the municipal government “shall take priority over and above the payment of any and all obligations, except salaries and wages of employees.”   

Libunao said the respondents collected from municipal employees, both permanent and casual, their contribution of GSIS premiums from 2001 to 2004 and from 2010 up to present.

The complainant said in his case, the local government collected from him P97,958.76 from January 2006 to June 2010 as his share in the GSIS premium.

“However, contrary to the provisions of the law, we found out that respondents did not remit my contributions to the GSIS within the required period,” he said.

Citing a 2010 annual audit report of the municipality, the complaint said that in 2009, the unremitted employees’ contribution was recorded at P11.7 million. This ballooned to P15.38 million in 2010.

The complaint further said that the town only had cash amounting to P4.2 million in 2010, which was not enough to cover its outstanding obligations worth P29.26 million for the same year

Libunao also asked the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend Joson and the other respondents to prevent them from influencing the case.

This, as Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali Tuesday denied insinuations that the filing of graft charges against Quezon Mayor Mariano Cristino Joson was politically motivated

Umali said he could not be accused by the Josons of playing politics in the graft complaint, adding it was former Quezon municipal accountant Ruperto Libunao who filed the case, not him.

Joson, along with three municipal officials, was accused of allegedly not remitting the Government Service Insurance System premiums of employees and incurring unliquidated cash advances and disbursements amounting to over P100 million.