Wages, allowances while suspended: DOJ orders Fiscal Castro to refund close to P100,000

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered Assistant Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro to pay back three months worth of salary that she received in 2005 despite being preventively suspended following the denial of her motion for reconsideration.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, in a letter dated August 26, denied Castro’s request for reconsideration on the memorandum that ordered her to refund more than P100,000 of salary, representation and transportation allowance and inquest allowance that she continues to receive even she was under suspension.

“After considering the arguments you raised in your said letter, there is no cogent reason why the order for refund should not be implemented even if the case against you is at its final stage,” Devanadera said.

Devanadera stressed that Castro’s suspension pending trial of her case carries with it the withholding of her salaries and allowances.

DOJ Assistant Secretary for Finance and Management Arthel Caronongan already informed Castro that effective this month until February next year she will be deducted P15,050.40 from her monthly salary and P4,800 from her RATA.

Castro is ordered to refund P99,252.00 representing the salaries she collected while under suspension and another P13,085.59 representing the special allowance she also collected.

The refund of the special allowance was deducted from the second quarter of this year.

Castro was able to claim her salary despite the suspension because City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon allegedly did not enforce it to the letter.

Sellon merely exempted Castro from the raffle of cases and from appearing in court.

The preventive suspension order was issued last April 11, 2005 because of the bribery case lodged against her by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas before the Sandiganbayan.

The case is in relation to her alleged act of receiving P10,000 from a lawyer in exchange for not raising any objections to the motion for bail that a drug suspect filed in court.

Castro denied receiving the money saying that Lawyer Gines Abellana left the money in her office despite her objection.—/NLQ   (FREEMAN NEWS)