Ombudsman sues Samar mayor over employees' unpaid salaries

The Office of the Ombudsman has filed criminal charges against a town mayor in Samar for allegedly not paying the salaries of five municipal employees.

Charged before the Sandiganbayan with five counts of violation of Section 3(e0 of the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act was Hinabangan Mayor Alejandro Abarratigue.

The charges was based on the allegations of five municipal employees that the mayor refused to release their salaries despite a court order granting the payment.

The withheld salaries amounted from P102,331.00 to P117,178.00.

The mayor also "unreasonably" assigned the five employees to far-flung barangays in 2009.

In a statement released by the Ombudsman, the employees said the reassignments caused them additional financial burden and resulted to their harassment and oppression.

The mayor's camp had told the Ombudsman that the non-payment of salaries was due to the five employees' failure to submit their Daily Time Records (DTR).

However, the Ombudsman said that its office's investigation found that the mayor refused to sign the employees' DTRs and their leaves of absences.

“Respondent’s act of deliberately withholding the payment of complainants’ salaries and benefits and their subsequent dismissal from service which issuance of the Memorandum Orders came only months after they took effect, imputes a dishonest purpose or some moral obliquity and conscious doing of a wrong,” the Ombudsman said. —Kiersnerr Gerwin Tacadena/ALG, GMA News