Graft charges filed vs jet-setting Manila city treasurer

A jet-setting treasurer of the City of Manila has flunked the government’s lifestyle checking and is now facing graft and corruption charges before the Office of the Ombudsman. The Department of Finance – Revenue Integrity Protection Service (DOF-RIPS) yesterday charged Manila City treasurer Liberty Toledo for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Revised Penal Code. Toledo also allegedly violated provisions of RA 6713 or Code of Conduct of Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees as well as RA 1379 or an Act of Declaring Forfeiture in Favor of the State and property found to have been unlawfully acquired. Toledo was designated as treasurer of the city government of Manila since 1995 until now, earning P267,684 a year. Prior to her appointment, she started as a cash clerk at the Bureau of Local Government and Finance in 1980. Investigation showed that Toledo owns a P4 million house and lot in Better Living Subdivision in Paranaque; a unit at the Kassel Condominium in Malate, Manila which is worth P2 million; a P10 million four-storey building in Sta. Ana, Manila; and a unit at the UN Garden Condominium. She also owns several vehicles including a Pajero, a Honda Civic, a Toyota Vios, a Mitsubishi Delica van, and a Toyota Tamaraw FX. Investigators said Toledo either failed to or underdeclared the value of the properties that she owned based on her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) submitted in 1999, 2003, and 2004. In her SALN, the respondent declared the value of the four-storey building at P800,000; the house and lot in Better Living Subdivision at P300,000; the UN Garden Condo at P870,000. She did not declare the Kassel Condominium. “The foregoing modest earnings notwithstanding, we subsequently discovered in the course of our official investigation that since her appointment to the much coveted post of Manila City treasurer, Toledo had steadily acquired substantial wealth including numerous prime and expensive real properties in Manila and elsewhere," the complaint stated. The investigators noted that the substantial wealth acquired was grossly disproportionate to her true and lawful income and could not be justified by any other legitimate source of income. Investigators also found out that Toledo traveled at least twice a year to Singapore, Xiamen, Sydney, and France between 2000 and 2004 without obtaining the required authority to travel abroad from the Department of Finance. Furthermore, Toledo’s husband - Francisco – traveled 27 times between 1995 and 2002 mostly to Japan, United States, and Japan. Likewise, her two daughters traveled at least once a year to Xiamen and Singapore from 2002 to 2005. “With respondent earning a modest salary as city treasurer, her substantial property ownership and her family’s frequent foreign travel is without doubt manifestly out of proportion to her lawful income," the complaint added. The government investigators want Toledo to be placed under preventive suspension while under investigation and that her unexplained wealth be forfeited in favor of the government. Toledo, who is also president of the Provincial and City Treasurers Association of the Philippines (PACTAP), could not be reached for comment. Her secretary said the Manila City treasurer was on leave and she was not authorized to give her contact numbers.-GMANews.TV