Ex-QC lawmaker Calalay dies at 68

Former Quezon City Rep. Francisco Calalay Jr. (Photo from the official website of the House of Representatives at www.congress.gov.ph )

MANILA — Former Quezon City Rep. Francisco Calalay Jr. has died at the age of 68, according to family members.

In a Facebook post, the former congressman’s son, Boyet Calalay, confirmed the death of Calalay, who was ordered dismissed in January by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly hiring ghost employees when he was city councilor.

That decision was reversed earlier this month by the Court of Appeals.

“Our family wishes to convey our sincerest appreciation for your prayers, sympathies, love and support,” his son said in the public post.

The younger Calalay said his father would lie in state for viewing at the Santuario de San Pedro Bautista Mortuary, San Francisco Del Monte, Quezon City starting Tuesday afternoon.

With his father’s death, Calalay said the family found comfort in the Bible verse, Philippians 3:20-21: ”But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

“R.I.P. Uncle/Congressman Boy Calalay ma miss ka namin uncle magkakasama na kayo ni Dadi,” another family member, Paolo Calalay, wrote on Facebook.

Calalay, along with former Quezon City councilor and actor Roderick Paulate and other city officials were charged with falsification of documents, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in hiring more than 100 workers on a job-order basis for the city government in 2010.

Government probers later discovered that the employees did not submit birth certificates and were not registered voters in their given addresses, records showed.

But the appellate court absolved Calalay and his fellow accused saying they “merely relied on the good faith of their subordinates” and that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove they had conspired to defraud government.  SFM