For freezing City's account: Rama may charge PPSB

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama threatened to file charges against the officials of the Philippine Postal Savings Bank (PPSB) for freezing the city’s account even with the writ of preliminary injunction issued by the Court of Appeals.

Rama has also ordered Acting City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva to withdraw all the city’s deposits with PPSB if its senior manager Ricardo P. Cordova will not change the status of the city’s account .

Two checks issued by the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office last week for the payment of services and goods were not honored by the bank.

PPSB is one of the three depository banks of the city. The others are Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Philippine Veterans Savings Bank.

The city’s account with PPSB has been frozen after the court issued a garnishment order in favor of the heirs of the late Rev. Fr. Vicente Rallos.

The heirs of the late priest wanted the city to pay them P133 million for the 4,654 square meters of lot that Rallos owned and was expropriated by the city for a road in 1963.

The road along Barangay Sambag II is now called M.L. Aznar Road.

The city refused to pay the heirs because of a document from the court that proves the Rallos family had already agreed among themselves to donate the road to the City of Cebu in 1940.

 The City Council also decided to hold a special session tomorrow morning and invited PPSB bank officials, Oliva and City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete to shed light about the matter.

Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña said she is worried of the implications of freezing the city’s deposits with PPSB because the city’s monthly share of P3 million from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) is deposited there.

Rama recently warned the managers of three depository banks that the city will be forced to charge them if they will release the city’s funds deposited in their respective banks because of the garnishment order issued by the court without the approval of the Commission on Audit.

The mayor said the Supreme Court has an existing guidelines that garnishment orders issued by the lower courts against any government funds should not be immediately implemented without the go signal of COA.

The guidelines also state that as soon as COA agrees to garnish the public funds, the state auditors will then ask the legislative body of the concerned local government unit to allocate in the budget the funds stated in the garnishment order. — (FREEMAN)