Tuguegarao councilor bares ‘ghost’ Christmas gifts

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – Councilor Maila Ting Que of this city asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to investigate the alleged ghost Christmas gifts that the Provincial Councilor’s League (PCL) in Cagayan supposedly gave in 2014.

Que is looking into filing charges but has not mentioned who will be named as respondents.

She learned that her name was included in the list of recipients of gifts from the “Pamaskong Handog 2014” (Christmas Gift for 2014). She denied receiving any gift and suspected that someone forged her signature.

In the list acquired by Rappler, even a certain Henry Sy – taking after the name of the mall tycoon – received food packs from the program. There are 325 others whose supposed signatures are on the list “certified true and correct by” a certain Mac Adriano of the PCL secretariat.

Que’s brother Michael Ting, whose name was “Mike Ting” on the list, also denied receiving gift packs. Que said Ting was in Manila at the time because he suffered severe stroke.

“I vehemently object to the use of my brother’s name as a part of this fraud. This is unethical, not to mention, without conscience,” Que said in her privilege speech during the council session on August 25.

Chita Ramos, a key official of Cagayan State University, denied she was the “Chita Q. Ramos” on the list because she has “R” as middle initial.

Lawyer Louie Aquino, the legal officer of Tuguegarao, in his radio interview with Jun Acosta of local radio DZCV, said it was not also his signature and he did not receive any gift packs, as listed on the recipients’ list.

About P146,910.60 has been obligated by Brickstone Supermart to the province for the grocery items, based on the Obligation Request in the Provincial Budget Office of Cagayan.

‘Mac Adriano’

The center of the controversy circles around the name of a certain “Mac Adriano”. His real name is Mark Angelo Adriano, the current executive assitant of Tuguegarao Mayor Jefferson Soriano.

On November 20, 2014, the time of purchase request for the said gift packs, Sanchez Mira town Councilor Napoleon Sacramed, as the PCL head, was sitting as ex-officio member of the provincial board of Cagayan. He had succeeded Bienvenido de Guzman after the latter moved up as vice mayor of Tuguegarao City in 3 separate occasions when Mayor Soriano was suspended and dismissed.

But Sacramed, in his sworn affidavit in May 2015, said, he did not sign the purchase request nor authorize the “Pamaskong Handog 2014.”

He said Adriano signed the documents in behalf of his name without his authority and without his knowledge.

“That the signature appearing above my type-written name is that of Mr Mark Angelo Adriano, staff of the PCL office and employed by Honorable Bienvenido de Guzman II,” Sacramed said.

De Guzman, now seating back as Tuguegarao councilor and PCL president when Soriano was reinstated by the Court of Appeals on April 2015, affirmed that he employed Adriano during his time as the president of the PCL.

Certain Mar Jenely Ancheta, Dexter de Leon, Aldette Bumanglag, and Jefferson Mauanay, according to Sacramed, made “frequent follow-ups” for the release of the fund.

Rappler learned that Ancheta, De Leon, Bumanglag, and Mauanay are all De Guzman’s staff in his office in the provincial board.

Rappler tried to call De Guzman but his phone could not be reached, but he said in the city council’s session that he “has the right to remain silent.”

Adriano said he is yet to see the documents presented. He said he remember signing for the program but denied he had forged signatures. – Rappler.com