Puerto Galera execs face malversation rap

The mayor and the municipal council in the tourist town of Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro province are facing another set of charges in the Office of the Ombudsman over an alleged misuse of public funds.

Puerto Galera Business and Tourism Enterprises Association Inc. (PGBTEA), which in March also sued the local chief executive over questionable fees being collected from them, asked the Ombudsman to place Puerto Galera Mayor Hubbert Christopher Dolor and the members of the municipal council under preventive suspension and  build a case of fund malversation against them.

PGBTEA, a group of at least 35 resort and business owners, based its complaint on the annual report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the 2012 transactions of the municipal government. The COA report, which was dated June 19, 2013, was published on COA’s website recently this year.

In a copy of the 11-page complaint filed on Monday, PGBTEA claimed that the respondents violated the law through the “illegal use of trust funds and giving unwarranted benefit to a private bank.”

The group was referring to the P20-million trust fund, which the municipal government transferred from a government depository bank, Land Bank of the Philippines, to the private United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) in 2011.

PGBTEA president Romeo Roxas, in an interview, said the amount came from the collection of “environmental users fees,” or the P50 collected by the municipal government from every guest or tourist in the town for environment conservation.

The COA noted that the UCPB account was opened “without prior approval from the Department of Finance (DOF),” and recommended that the local government either secure a DOF clearance or “close the (UCPB) account.”

In another report, the COA also raised the “cash overdraft of P4,336,402 incurred due to the agency’s (municipal government) practice of utilizing trust funds for purposes other than for which the same were set up … thus depleting the funds for [their] intended purpose.”

It was for this reason PGBTEA asked the Ombudsman to also conduct a special fraud audit of the municipal government’s funds.

In a phone interview on Monday, Dolor said the UCPB account was opened to satisfy the bank’s requirement to put up its automated teller machines (ATM) in Puerto Galera, the first to be set up in the resort town.

Putting up an ATM, added Dolor, was “just for the purpose of giving our employees’ salaries. Nothing comes out of the trust fund.”

Dolor said he was not aware of the COA report and the complaint filed by PBTEA until the Inquirer sought his comment.

“If they (COA) wanted it back (to Land Bank), we can do that. But my municipal treasurer is in constant communication with the UCPB and the DOF and everything [we have] done was transparent,” he said.