Zamboanga City council probes local execs’ unpaid P1.2M fuel from gasoline station

AFP FILE PHOTO

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The city council has started an investigation into the local government’s P1.2-million unpaid bill from a gasoline station for fuel withdrawals between 2008 and 2011.

Councilor Melchor Sadain said the investigation would establish why the fuel withdrawals conducted by members of the city council during those years have not been paid.

Among those recorded to have made fuel withdrawals were former councilor Jihann Edding, who did not even have a vehicle.

There was also the case of the late councilor Edmundo Rodriguez, with a standing bill of P46,565.87.

Vice Mayor Cesar Iturralde and councilor Charlie Mariano, both incumbent officials, have standing debts of P154,345.89 and P103,895.73 respectively.

Iturralde in an interview said in 2011, a probe was also conducted on the “excessive use of fuel and gas slips and we have traced it down to a lady employee.”

He said Ma. Socorro Duremdes, a clerk at the Sangguniang Panlungsod, was in-charge of gas slip issuance and was later suspended over the excessive withdrawals.

Duremdes, now assigned at the City Library, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that some councilors indeed were engaged in excessive withdrawal of fuel.

She also explained that some city government vehicles assigned to incumbent councilors were still registered to the names of previous councilors, which could explain why those who already died or those who lost in past elections were still listed in the bill.

Based on the allocation, each of the city’s 19 council officials receives 300 liters each month while Iturralde gets 1,000 liters for all his three assigned vehicles.

“I cannot explain why they exceed beyond 300 liters monthly. My task is just to release the needed gas slip for their use. Now if there’s a question of unpaid bills, Vice Mayor (Iturralde) has to explain it as he was the one who kept assuring me that he’ll be responsible for these excesses. The Vice mayor even convinced me to sign a promissory note they prepared and now I am in hot water,” Duremdes said.

She denied encashing the gas allocations, as some counilors had suspected.

“Why would I do that? I have been in this job for 25 years and served many Vice Mayors in the past,” she said.

“We are worried because we want the council to be very transparent, transactions above board, but now we have this bad image before the eyes of our constituents,” Iturralde said.

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