Teacher in hot water for P50K overtime, honoraria claims

A STATE university professor is facing trial on two charges of estafa after she was allegedly found to have falsified school documents to claim more than P50,000 in honoraria and overtime pay.

Charges were filed against Nena Calunsag, then an associate professor of Cebu Technological University (CTU) in court last Monday.

Documents obtained by the Ombudsman-Visayas from the Commission on Audit (COA) showed that Calunsag falsified her daily time record to make it appear that she worked overtime from July 20 to Aug. 27, 2004.

She managed to collect P13,100 as overtime pay in the CTU’s College of Industrial Technology Engineering (CITE) Evening program.

Calunsag was also found to have falsified her travel itineraries for the same period.

She claimed that she attended various activities sponsored by the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and received reimbursment for her travel expenses worth P50,462.

The Ombudsman then referred the cases to Graft Investigation and Prosecution officer I Jess Vincent dela Pena.

School records didn’t show Calunsag’s name in the work attendance list of teachers from July to August of 2004.

Even the Tesda office in Manila had no records of Calunsag attending any of their programs for that same period.

Calunsag failed to present any certificate of attendance issued by Tesda, nor boat or plane tickets for her itineraries.

Calunsag didn’t file any counter-affidavit to disprove the charges against her. The court pegged the bail for two counts of estafa at P36,000. UP Cebu Intern Apple Ta-as