The Office of the Ombudsman filed criminal charges with the Sandiganbayan against an incumbent mayor of Western Samar, for not paying the salaries of five municipal employees whom he unreasonably re-assigned/transferred to far-flung barangays in 2009.
Mayor Alejandro Abarratigue of Hinabangan, Samar is facing five counts of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. No. 3019).
The charges stemmed from allegations from affected municipal employees that the mayor wantonly refused to approve and release their salaries despite a court order granting the payment.
In the employees’ money claims before the Commission on Audit, the re-assignments/transfers of the employees were declared to be irregular as these were made to a sub-office which did not actually exist under the municipal organizational structure, caused them additional financial burden and resulted to their harassment and oppression. The withholding of their salaries ranging from P102,331.00 to P117,178.00 was also found to be illegal and irregular.
The respondent posits that the non-payment of the salaries was due to the failure of the employees to submit their Daily Time Records (DTRs), thus, they were dropped from the payroll. Investigation, however, found that the employees periodically submitted their DTRs to the Human Resource Office but respondent refused to sign them, including their leave of absences.
“[R]espondent’s act of deliberately withholding the payment of complainants’ salaries and benefits and their subsequent dismissal from service which issuance of the Memorandum Orders came only months after they took effect, imputes a dishonest purpose or some moral obliquity and conscious doing of a wrong,” the Consolidated Order stated.
Section 3(e) of R.A. No. 3019 penalizes a public officer who causes undue injury to any party, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence###