2 Manila employees nabbed for paying P5 million to 'ghost' consultants

MANILA, Philippines - Two Manila City Hall employees were arrested Thursday for allegedly releasing and collecting P5 million in salaries to 21 “ghost” consultants over the past 18 months, police said yesterday.

The Manila City Hall Police Office nabbed cash division paymaster Fritz Borres, who has been a city hall employee for 25 years; and Rodel Leyson, employee of the electronic data processing division.

Senior Inspector Marcelo Reyes said they found that the residences of the 21 consultants were fictitious.

During the entrapment, police said they caught Borres releasing the salaries to Leyson and seized the documents of the ghost employees from the two suspects.

The Manila city government denied that the Office of the Mayor hired these consultants, and noted that the city officials’ signatures on the documents had been forged.

Police said the two suspects collected P13,500 for each consultant every payday for the past 18 months. Leyson and Borres denied the allegations.

Borres said he was just doing his job, adding that the processing of the payroll goes through a lot of people and he did not know there were ghost employees. Leyson said he just acted as a middle man for the consultants.

The two will be charged with 63 counts of malversation of funds, estafa and falsification of public documents.

Police suspect there are more people involved in this illegal activity and are conducting a follow-up operation.