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.
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