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Ombudsman dismisses QC councilor Roderick Paulate, 3 others for 'ghost employees'


The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal from service of incumbent Quezon City councilors Roderick Paulate and Francisco Calalay as well as two other city officials over the alleged hiring of "ghost employees" in 2010.

In a resolution signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Paulate, Calalay and city liaison officers Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde were all found guilty of falsification of official documents, serious dishonesty and grave misconduct.

Aside from their dismissal, the four respondents were also meted with accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, cancellation of eligibility, and forfeiture of retirement benefits.

The Office of the Ombudsman has yet to release a press statement regarding the resolution but its Public Information and Media Relations Bureau (PIMRB) confirmed that the dismissal order, signed by Morales, has already been issued.

The Department of Interior and Local Government was directed by Morales to implement the order.

According to the Ombudsman’s investigation, the 60 "ghost employee" positions included field inspectors, district coordinators and office aides.

The Ombudsman said the employees were actually non-existent and it was Paulate and Calalay who were receiving their salaries and other emoluments.

The Ombudsman said each "ghost employee" was receiving a salary raging from P5,000 to P10,000 monthly.

“[The Quezon City Councilors] tend to show that they knowingly or willfully used their positions in placing under the employ of the local government of Quezon City, several ghost employees, and receiving their salaries, wages and other emoluments for their own personal gain,” the Ombudsman said in an earlier order placing Paulate and the other respondents under preventive suspension in 2012.

For Alvarez and Bajamunde, it said: “as liaison officers, they allowed themselves to be used by the respondent City Councilors when they collected and received the salaries, wages and other emoluments of these contractual ghost employees.”

GMA News Online was trying to get a reaction from Paulate and the other respondents as of posting time. —JST/KG, GMA News

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