Kidapawan payroll officer disappears with funds for 5,000 city workers

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—The disbursing officer of the Kidapawan City local government has been missing since Thursday and officials suspect he fled with funds intended for nearly 5,000 workers.

Kidapawan Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco said Darwin Loyola disappeared on Thursday, shortly after withdrawing money from the Land Bank of the Philippines branch there.

He could not say how much money Loyola withdrew on that day.

But Gantuangco said the amount that Loyola withdrew was for honorarium of peace keeping action teams from the city barangay (villages), city-paid teachers and job order employees.

“He was last seen withdrawing funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines for the June 16 to 30 honorarium of some 2,500 members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team, about 150 teachers and about 2,000 job order and contractual employees,” Gantuangco told a radio station here.

He said the exact amount that disappeared with Loyola was still undetermined and was still the subject of an audit by the Commission on Audit (CoA), as of Sunday.

“The Commission on Audit has started a comprehensive audit of the financial records of the local government and that of Loyola’s office since Friday,” he said.

Gantuangco said they suspect that Loyola had fled with the money he withdrew from the bank on Thursday because he might have been having problems with his money-lending business, which caters mostly to city hall employees.

He said when Loyola increased the capital for his lending business a few years ago, he had convinced co-employees to invest into it.

Gantuangco said he could only surmise that Loyola could no longer account for the money he got from investors and decided to disappear.

Gantuangco said when he learned on Thursday that Loyola failed to pay the honorarium of non-plantilla workers, he immediately ordered a search for the disbursing officer.

He said when the police checked on Loyola’s house in Apo Sandawa Subd., they found out it was padlocked.

Gantuangco said he immediately suspected that something was wrong and ordered employees to forcibly open the vault at Loyola’s office at the city hall.

The opening, he said, was witnessed by CoA auditors, the city treasurer, city administrator and the chairman of Barangay (village) Poblacion.

He said they found documents, including pay slips, but no cash.

Employees covered by the money that disappeared with Loyola said they were worried about getting paid now.

Gantuangco said they would try to locate Loyola as soon as possible but did not say when the non-plantilla workers would be paid.