Caloocan vice mayor, secretary face raps

Criminal charges were filed against the Vice Mayor of Caloocan and the City Council’s secretary before the Sandiganbayan.

Charged with falsification of public documents for violation of Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code were Vice Mayor Oscar Malapitan and City Council secretary Lorenzo Sunga Jr.

The charges against Malapitan and Sunga stemmed from their alleged unauthorized memorandum dated July 26, 2000, which required Francisco Veza, Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo’s secretary; Hernando Banta, City treasurer; and Juanito Ortiz, City budget officer, to appear before the council to explain the memorandum order issued by Malonzo regarding the reduction of "Job Order Workers" (JOW) and the implementation of the "No Contract, No Work, No Pay Policy" on July 27, 2000.

The City councilors, led by Edgar Erice, said that Malapitan and Sunga committed falsification of public documents when the duo indicated that their unauthorized memorandum was "pursuant to the Resolution of the City Council dated July 13, 2000."

"Contrary to the palpable misrepresentation of herein respondents in said memorandum, the City council has not passed, enacted or approved any such resolution requiring the appearance of the secretary to the Mayor, the city treasurer and the city budget officer before the city council," Erice said.

Board secretary IV Edgar Lero corroborated Erice’s statement in his July 25, 2000 certification which read: "...there is no resolution which was approved by the City council enjoining Veza, Banta and Ortiz to appear before the council and to answer the question relative to the memorandum order by the City Mayor."

Graft Investigation Officer I Evangeline Grafil, in filing the case against Malapitan and Sunga said that the respondents committed the crime of falsification "because the memorandum contained untruthful narration of facts... that complaints have participated in a proceeding when the alleged resolution was passed, when no such proceedings took place."