18 Alcala officials charged by NGO
OVER TOBACCO EXCISE TAX USE
ALCALA— A non-government organization based in this town filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against 18 former and incumbent municipal officials for alleged misappropriation of the town’s share in the tobacco excise tax.
Save Pangasinan Movement, Inc. (SPM) led by its chairman, Manuel Tolentino and secretary-general, Atty. Fleurdeliz Cabalteja filed its complaint-affidavit for technical malversation and violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees last April 28.
Charged in the complaint are former Mayor Manuel Collado, former Vice Mayor and now Mayor Ryan Paolo Mencias, Councilors Elizabeth Cabreros, Emme Luisa Ramos, Alegria Almajano, Jojo Callejo, Rodolfo Rosquita, Eduardo Dela Cruz Sr., Mario Cerezo, Gerardo Ablao, Filomeno Racpan, and Enrico Theodore Ramos; Budget Officer Anneli Manzano, Treasurer Roselily Ferrer, Accountant Natividad Peregrino, Planning and Development Officer Ignacio Gelacio, Agriculture Officer Edgardo Tugas, and Municipal Engineer Alexander Lazaga.
At a press conference held last April 29, Tolentino said his group’s investigation discovered massive fraud in the use of the excise tax in different parts of the country.
“We are only starting in Alcala (where the movement was founded),” he said.
The complaint cited Section 8 of the RA 8240 which provides that 15% of the incremental revenue collected from the excise tax on tobacco products shall be allocated and divided among the provinces producing burley and native tobacco in accordance with the volume of production.
The town of Alcala, Cabalteja said, received its P232 million share in the tobacco excise tax in 2010 supposedly for “(1) cooperative projects that will enhance better quality of agricultural products and increase income and productivity of farmers; (2) livelihood projects particularly the development of alternative farming system to enhance farmer’s income; and (3) agro-industrial projects that will enable tobacco farmers to be involved in the management and subsequent ownership of projects such as post-harvest and secondary processing like cigarette manufacturing and by-product utilization.”
Instead, the local government of Alcala used the town’s share for the construction of at least six infrastructure projects by Mever Construction, allegedly owned by Mencias’ family.
Mencias then was the vice mayor and is now the current town mayor of Alcala. Collado was the town mayor from June 2004 to May 2013.
Cited projects pursued in violation of the law were P2.73 million for farm-to-market-roads in different barangays in Alcala namely San Pedro, Vacante, Laoac, Atainan, San Nicolas, and Poblacion East; P157M was spent for the construction of an “agro-industrial complex” located in Brgy. Bersamin which complainants said only offers drying facilities for corn and palay, not for tobacco.
The complex “is not within the provision on the use of tobacco excise tax share, worse, it’s a white elephant project up to now,” remarked Cabalteja.
“Considering that respondent-public officials are still currently seated as public officers in the Municipality of Alcala, complainants herein were unable to secure other documentary evidence as needed despite repeated requests,” the SPM said in its complaint.
SPM urged the Ombudsman to conduct a lifestyle check on the respondents and their immediate family members including the monitoring of their assets and bank accounts.
SPM claims it has 5,000 members in the province, mostly farmers. (Johanne Macob/Leonardo Micua)
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