CEBU, Philippines - The acting cashier of the Bureau of Customs assigned with the Customs-PEZA Clearing Office (CPCO) at the Peza I Compound in Lapu-Lapu City is dismissed from service.
Graft investigator Pio Dargantes found substantial evidence that Sunshine Saliendra, clerk III, committed the administrative violation of dishonesty.
Aside from dismissal from service, Dargantes is also meted the penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits and disqualification from re-employment in the government service.
Dargantes, through the approval of acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, directed the collector of Customs of the Port of Cebu, Bureau of Customs to implement Saliendra’s dismissal within five days from receipt of the order.
Dargantes said the office of the Ombudsman must be furnished with the memorandum as evidence of the implementation.
It was Regional Director Delfin Aguilar of the Commission on Audit (COA)-7 who filed a complaint for dishonesty before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for
Saliendra’s shortage of P6,648,306.
The shortage was found by State Auditor II Ophelia Jorgio on April 6, 2007.
They sent a demand letter for Saliendra to produce the missing funds and explain the shortage but the latter failed to comply.
However, in Saliendra’s reply to the complaint filed in the Ombudsman she denied the charges, claiming she was not the only cashier assigned at CPCO.
“I am not the only cashier assigned at the CPCO but there are others who are assigned in shifts who took turns in making the collections,” Saliendra said.
She admitted, through, that there were many discrepancies in the documents examined by the COA but she explained that she did not use it for her own good.
Saliendra said “the amount in the shortage of collections was solely based on receipts retrieved and that there were other collectors who were doing the same function.”
She added that the work confronting her daily “is fast and voluminous” that she may “somehow have lost track in the proper recording of the receipts and documents covering the transactions.”
However, Dargantes said the defense of Saliendra was considered a denial, which is a “self-serving negative evidence that cannot be given weight.”
Dargantes likewise recommended the filing of the information against Saliendra for malversation of public funds in court.
“As a matter of public policy, the shortage discovered and chargeable under the name of respondent is an actionable wrong. The claim of respondent that the audit was tainted with irregularity is a matter of evidence that is best left for the court to appreciate.” – (FREEMAN)