Consolacion budget officer faces raps before ombudsman

THE budget officer of Consolacion town, northern Cebu, has been sued before the anti-graft office after she allegedly did not allocate the budget for salaries and benefits for four permanent officials of the town’s community college without due process.

Former officials of the Consolacion Community College (CCC), now known as the Cebu Technological University (CTU) Consolacion campus, have filed charges against Judith Pepito, the town’s current budget officer before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for usurpation of legislative powers, Republic Act (RA) 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, oppression, and other administrative cases.

The former CCC officials lodged their complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas on Feb. 1, 2023.

Complaining against Pepito are lawyer Christian Bacus, who formerly served as CCC’s college department head; Joseph Pegaredo, college registrar; Vanessa Malonjao, college guidance counselor; and May Ancajas, college librarian.

The four were plantilla employees working for CCC but were eventually absorbed by CTU when it established a satellite campus in Consolacion upon the enactment of RA 11800 on July 27, 2022.

SunStar Cebu reached out to Pepito multiple times to get her side on the matter, but as of press time, she had not issued a statement.

Reasons

Bacus told SunStar Cebu that they had filed charges against Pepito after she allegedly removed their job items from the municipal government’s proposed 2023 budget, which prevented them from receiving the salaries and benefits they were entitled to.

Bacus said he found out that their items were removed from the town’s annual budget during a courtesy visit to Vice Mayor Aurelio Damole in December last year.

According to the complaint, Bacus said he was surprised to find out from Damole that their budget allocation for their school, including their salaries and benefits, were not included in the town’s budget hearing.

Bacus said that despite being absorbed as CTU employees, he and the other complainants were receiving salaries and other benefits from the municipal government of Consolacion until Dec. 31, 2022. (HIC, JKV)