Mandaluyong cashier rapped for money loss

The Mandaluyong City government filed yesterday malversation of public funds charges against a 44-year-old cashier for the disappearance of P2.6 million in payroll money last Dec. 17.

Acting as complainant, City Treasurer William Marcelino filed the charges against Juliet Canonizado, of 342 Barangay Drive with the city prosecutor’s office at about 11. a.m.

The filing of charges against Canonizado came after Superintendent Jose Gentiles, Mandaluyong City police chief, forwarded his investigation report to Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr., stating that fingerprints lifted at the crime scene showed only that of the cashier of window 5.

It was Canonizado herself, who discovered the money missing last Dec. 18 when she reported for work at 8:30 a.m. She was rushed to the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital after she suffered hypertension.

Police prober PO3 Noli Cortez said Canonizado was considered a prime suspect because all evidence and testimonies point to her as the possible culprit.

Cortez said they will ask the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to defer conducting lie detector test, believing they have sufficient evidence to pin Canonizado down. "The lie detector test is intended to eliminate suspects. But all other cashiers attested that it was only the suspect who knew the combination of her cubicle’s lock and her safety vault," said Cortez.

According to Cortez, before the disappearance of the money, Canonizado told fellow employees she had lost her keys to the double-lock doors but failed to inform her superior, Alice Foz, about it. She, too, failed to make a report about the incident nor make a request for a change of locks, he added. – Non Alquitran