The six-month preventive suspension of Quezon City Councilors Roderick Paulate and Francisco Calalay Jr., who are being investigated for allegedly hiring ghost employees, is expected to push through with the signing of the order on July 5 by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.
The councilors’ liaison officers, Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde, were also suspended in connection with the administrative case.
The four are facing complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman for serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct, falsification of official documents, and conduct grossly prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
In May, the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office (FIO) filed graft and malversation charges against them in the Office of the Ombudsman and recommended their suspension.
Morales said there were enough grounds to suspend the public officials for six months without pay.
She said there was “strong evidence of guilt” because the councilors had endorsed the contractual employees to the Legislative Department. They had also confirmed that these employees had worked for them.
Morales said this showed that they had knowingly or willfully used their positions to get the Quezon City government to hire ghost employees to get their salaries, wages and other emoluments for their own personal gain.
Alvarez and Bajamunde, on the other hand, allowed themselves to be used by the councilors when they collected and received the salaries and wages of th alleged ghost employees, Morales added.
The employees, who had no birth records or National Bureau of Investigation records, worked as district coordinators, field investigators and office aides.