City Hall security staff assails misconduct raps as baseless

A member of the City Hall's civil security unit, assigned at the city health department, cried foul over the allegations of misconduct a member of the mayor's management team recently filed against her.

Rosemarie Rizol now faces at the Employee Management Committee on Inquiry a charge of conduct unbecoming of a government employee for her alleged violation of the uniform rules on administrative cases in the civil service.

The allegations are baseless, and merely insinuation and fabrication, Rizol said. "The accusation is not true; their purpose is to incriminate my personal reputation," she stated in her explanation to the committee.

Elizabeth Querubin, a staff of the city accountant's office and a member of the MMT, filed the complaint against Rizol for allegedly issuing "unpleasant remarks" against her in particular and the mayor's team in general.

Querubin alleged that Rizol, last October 12, accompanied to the accountant's office a certain Juanita Ulan, who wants to claim money for burial assistance.

Rizol and Ulan were told, however, that the money would not be released yet because it would take days for the voucher to be sent for pre-auditing because the claimant failed to sign the pre-auditor's logbook.

"I referred them to the receiving clerk for their other queries since my duties and responsibilities as a member of the MMT does not encompass answering queries from follow-uppers about vouchers," Querubin said in her complaint.

Querubin said this allegedly drew unpleasant remarks from Rizol who shouted by saying, "Mga bogo mo. Kung dili ninyo kaya ang trabaho, pang-resign na lang mo. Pangutan-on nako si Mayor nganong nag-hire siya og MMT nga wala man lang gihapon nahimo."

Rizol denied Querubin's accusations, saying that Ulan could testify that they waited at the accounting office for almost two hours before they were attended to. She said that Ulan came to her for help after a lapse of almost 11 months without result from the request for assistance.

Other claimants already got their money ahead of Ulan, who was actually the first who submitted the documents for claiming burial assistance immediately after her husband died, Rizol explained about Ulan's plight.

Rizol complained that while she and Ulan were waiting at the accountant's office, the personnel were talking, and that "they did not explain (the matter to us) in a polite manner" but did it with an exasperated reply of, "wa pa lagi."

Ulan's documents were also found missing, Rizol said, as she suggested to Ulan to write Mayor Tomas Osmeña instead about her experience at the accounting's office. Querubin however overheard Rizol's words to Ulan.

"They got angry with me so they filed a complaint against me. Again, I vehemently deny uttering defamatory words against them. (Ulan) is my witness," Rizol said, adding that Ulan already had an affidavit supporting Rizol's side.

"Nagpasikat lang siguro na silang taga-MMT," a city government employee butted it when Rizol talked to The Freeman.

The MMT has been composed of top college graduates who answered Osmeña's call for "new blood" to revitalize the city government.

The mayor was at the time concerned about reports of anomalies in some departments but that he could not monitor anymore because of unsatisfactory "middle management." He eyed the MMT as the solution to improve the performance of "middle management" at the City Hall.

The MMT would conduct case studies about management problems such as slow procurement, unclear auditing, and undelivered services, among others, then make recommendations to the mayor for solutions.

Since the MMT was formed last year, 10 have already quit the job and only 70 remained. - Garry B. Lao