City accountant, labor officer probed for illegal wealth

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman issued six-month preventive suspension orders yesterday to a city accountant and a labor officer who are being investigated for serious dishonesty and allegedly amassing unexplained wealth.

The anti-graft agency said Marilou Calugay Tanael, City Accountant II of Parañaque City, and Erlinda Villegas, chief labor employment officer of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Region IV-B, are under preliminary investigation.

The preventive suspension issued against them seeks to prevent them from influencing the outcome of the probe.

Tanael has been charged with serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for allegedly amassing wealth beyond her means.

In a complaint filed by the Office’s Field Investigation Office (FIO), Tanael allegedly amassed P3.9 million from 1996 to 2006, which is manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income.

Villegas, on the other hand, was suspended after she was charged with gross insubordination, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, grave misconduct, dishonesty and other violations of the civil service law and rules and regulations by the DOLE’s Resident Ombudsman.

The charges stemmed from an anonymous complaint that alleged she wrote by hand all her noon entries in her daily time records (DTRs) from March 2005 to September 2006 and for May 2007, disregarding a memorandum issued by her supervisors requiring the use of a bundy clock.

It was also alleged that Villegas went abroad on four different occasions from 2005 to 2006 without securing authority to travel, and even indicated in her DTRs that she was present in office during the unauthorized trips.

The anonymous complainant also said that when Villegas applied for the position of chief labor employment officer, she falsely indicated in her personal data sheet that she earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Wesleyan University-Manila.

Documents from the Commission on Higher Education, however, indicate that the said school has no government authority to operate graduate programs.