MANILA, Philippines—Winston Garcia, the controversial president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), has been slapped with another case at the Office of the Ombudsman involving the allegedly anomalous transfer of P8 billion since 2003, to the personal account of another GSIS official.

A group of public school teachers on Thursday brought charges against Garcia, Consuelo Manansala, GSIS vice president and treasurer-in-trust of the GSIS Properties Inc. (GPI), and GSIS chair Bernardino Abes.

The three GSIS officials are accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Law, the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees, and of malversation of public funds.

Opportunity loss

In their complaint, public school teachers Feliciano Taguibao, Miguel Miram and Luz Pacete and government retiree Robert Carballo alleged that P8 billion representing the proceeds from matured treasury bills were deposited in the personal account of Manansala, resulting in a waste of public funds and revenue losses to the government.

They said that the cash transfers to Manansala’s savings account resulted in “opportunity loss” for the government, as the money would have earned P57.4 million instead of only P10.3 million if it had been placed in treasury bills.

They said the funds should have been transferred to the GPI account, not to Manansala’s personal account.

The complainants cited a Commission on Audit (COA) report showing that when the GPI assumed corporate existence in May 5, 2003, the GSIS deposited a total of P2.7 billion to the account of Manansala.

The COA report also noted several deposits to Manansala’s account on various dates subsequent to May 5, 2003, instead of transferring the funds in the name of GPI.

“The accused GSIS Board of Trustees permitted and consented the other person to take such public funds and therefore should be held criminally liable for misappropriation and malversation of public funds,” the complaint read.

They asked the Ombudsman to place the GSIS officials under preventive suspension for six months, so that the documents relating to the misappropriation and malversation may be “preserved.”

All accounted for

Contacted for comment, Garcia said the charges were old issues that were being rehashed.

He said the same complaints were filed in 2005, and that the GSIS had already answered these.

Garcia said Manansala served as treasurer of the GPI, which was why the money was placed in her account. He said the money was fully accounted for and the GSIS has a complete record of it.

“Even interest earnings were fully accounted for. There was no personal profit,” Garcia said.

He said the complaint was only meant to discredit him and his office, and alleged that the complainants were being paid by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to harass him.

“These are old issues being rehashed. This is being done by people who are paid by Meralco,” he said in a telephone interview.

Garcia, on the strength of the GSIS and government seats in the Meralco board, recently led a failed bid to take over the management of the electricity distribution utility from the Lopez group. With a report from Michelle Remo