AMID tight security by armalite-wielding policemen, municipal
employes of Rodriguez, Rizal were finally allowed to resume work after a two-day
forced vacation due to the standoff between suspended mayor Pedro Cuerpo and
acting mayor Jonas Cruz.
Cuerpo remained holed up inside his office at the town hall
while Cruz held office in another room.
Cruz said they will file a case against Cuerpo at the
Ombudsman over P429 million allegedly unliquidated expenditures in 2005 and
2006. He said they have documents from the Commission on Audit to back their
case. "Isu-submit namin sa Ombudsman itong mga dokumento na galing sa COA sa
lalong madaling panahon," he said.
He said some P38 million of the P429 million were released
for infrastructure projects but without proper documentation, and P253 million
worth of properties and documents are missing. He said cash advances of around
P2.9 million remain unliquidated based on COA's annual audit of 2006.
"According to COA, several account balances could not be
ascertained due to absence of complete records to validate them," said Cruz.
"The report also shows that the assets which are obsolete and no longer
serviceable are still carried in the book of the municipality."
Cruz said they will also question why manpower costs
ballooned in the two-year period from 38 million in 2005 to P343 million in
2006.
Cuerpo said he is not surprised that his political enemies
are throwing everything at him. "Di na ako nagtataka at handa akong harapin iyan.
Inaasahan ko na iyan, na hahanap sila ng mga ganyan kahit na walang tamang
basehan," he said.
Cuerpo said in an earlier tv interview that the root cause of
his suspension was the desire of Rizal governor Casimiro Ynares to transfer
custody of the P150 million-a-year in garbage tipping fees from the treasury of
Rodriguez, which hosts the sanitary landfill, to Rizal's.
Cuerpo entered the town hall last Monday, ostensibly to
attend the public hearing on the garbage dump issue upon invitation of the town
council. He then stayed on while his supporters barricaded the building's
entrance.
Hours before the town hall was reopened yesterday, unidentified men in a van
brought to the site a white coffin and lighted candles to lament the "death of
justice" in the town. The camps of both Cuerpo and Cruz denied responsibility
for the stunt. - Ashzel Hachero
