Ex-City Hall worker faces usurpation raps

CEBU, Philippines - A former Cebu City Hall employee is facing charges of usurpation of authority after police filed a case against him before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s office yesterday afternoon.

Arante Aranas, 42, resident of  T. Padilla Street, Cebu City, was complained for allegedly extorting money from an owner of a food establishment on Sanciangko Street, Cebu City.

Joselinda Lim, manager of Kara’s Fried Chicken, in her sworn statement, said at 11 a.m. on February 4, while she was tending the restaurant, Aranas, wearing an orange shirt printed with Cebu City government logo and an ID, approached her and told her that the store’s sanitary permit was expiring and that they had to renew it.

“Renew-hunon man diay ni imong sanitary permit,” Lim quoted Aranas as saying.

In response, Lim said she told him that she was really going to renew it the soonest possible time.

Suspecting that the purported government worker was about to extort money, she then asked if he had a companion.

When he answered there was none, she said she excused herself to go to the comfort room. It was at this juncture when she called the police to arrest Aranas.

From what she knew, Lim said sanitary inspectors from the city normally come in groups when they inspect a restaurant.

Dr. Daisy Villa, chief of the City Health Department, also filed a separate affidavit, which stated that there was no Arante Aranas in their record of employees.

Aranas was caught with two IDs supposedly issued by the Cebu City Hall, one bearing his name as Arante Aranas being inspector of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office and the other with the name John Paul C. Reyes but with the same photo and designation with the first ID.

Aranas was detained by the police after the incident.

In an earlier interview, Aranas admitted to The FREEMAN that he was a job-order worker under the CENRO in 2013 but left in April 2014 due to “financial reasons.” — Liv G. Campo (FREEMAN)