Rehab center head, COA, city officials meet for fact-find conference

The Office of the Ombudsman Visayas has summoned Cebu Center for the Ultimate Rehabilitation of Drug Dependents director Pablo Apolonio along with officials of the Commission on Audit, Cebu City accountant and councilor Augustus "Jun" Pe Jr. for a fact-finding conference on the absence of proper accounting of the facility's sources of income.

A notice for the fact-finding conference was received yesterday by Councilor Pe, who is the chairman of the council's committee on drugs task force.

Also summoned were COA director for the regional legal and adjudication office lawyer Roy Ursal, and COA regional cluster director Helen Hilayo as well as City Auditor Josephine Daclan.

As it appears, the anti-graft office has revived its fact-finding inquiry on Ccuredd after the escape of 11 wards last Monday.

The first probe was after the same incident that occurred November 1 of last year wherein 40 patients knocked down the main door of the center, but only 24 were able to escape by forming a human chain to scale the 15-foot perimeter fence.

In the joint investigation conducted by councilors Augustus "Jun" Pe, Jr. of the council's committee on dangerous drugs and Procopio Fernandez of the committee on police on the administrative and operational concerns of the center, they found out that there were surplus incomes not reflected in the financial report submitted by former Ccuredd head Eutiquio Vibal to them.

For instance, for the month of February 2004 alone, the center had a total income of P528,230. Of these, P327,050 came from the subsistence allowance collection of the patients and P201,180 from the financial aid of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

However, Vibal's report only showed they incurred a total P391,226.27 as their monthly operating expenses for the month of February but did not indicate where the remaining P136,903 went or how it was spent.

They further stated in their report that the same trend reflected in the succeeding months and that the surplus income has not been reflected in the financial report.

Further, Pe said yesterday that Ccuredd has yet to liquidate for the city's subsidy since 2001 amounting to over a million. The Cebu City government used to extend P1,500 subsidy to each patient but was increased to P2,000 when in June 1997, a request was made to then mayor Alvin Garcia for an increase of the subsidy to sustain its operation.

Aside from the subsidy coming from the city's coffer, the Dangerous Drugs Board in Manila also allocated P30 funds for the daily meal allowance of each ward.

The rehabilitation center has only a maximum capacity of 180 patients, but admissions could reach to an average of 200 patients and a maximum of 250. To date, Pe said the center has some 150 wards.

Also, there was a raise recently on the monthly fee that each ward has to pay to finance their rehabilitation from P2,500 to P4,000.