Mandaue JO worker to face falsification raps

A job order (JO) employee of Mandaue City government is set to face charges for falsifying a business permit.

A complaint for falsification of public document will be filed against the 45-year-old JO worker assigned as encoder at the Business Processing Licensure Office (BPLO).

The City Legal Office (CLO) refused to disclose the name of the employee pending the resolution of the case.

Lawyer James Allan Sayson, CLO assistant, said the office is conducting an in-depth investigation into the incident.

Prior to the discovery, the legal office had a separate investigation two weeks ago—from October 15 to 20— into seven establishments on A.S. Fortuna reportedly operating without business permits.

Of the seven, three have fake business permits.

“Ato gi-servan og closure (order) but pag-abot nato didto, we were just shocked nga some of them were able to produce a business permit. So, nagduda na ta nga naay mga irregularities, so atong gi-check ang paper, the paper turned out to be genuine. Someone is working from the inside,” he said.

During the investigation, a business owner from Barangay Subangdaku was summoned last Wednesday by BPLO for operating without environmental compliance certificate and sanitary permit, which are requisites in acquiring a business permit from the city government.

The proprietor was able to present a business permit.

“With some stroke of luck, naa'y business establishment nga gi-call ang attention kay ngano naka kuha og business permit nga wala pa’y environmental certificate and sanitary permit but their business permit is final permit na valid na by December (2018),” he said.

BPLO found out that the permit was signed by the employee without authority from the head of Office, Rebecca Luna.

“It was then we found out nga natamper ang permit , naa’y falsification nga nahitabo,” Sayson said, adding that only the authorized person, who is the BPLO head should sign the permits.

Sayson said the employee admitted signing the permit, explaining that Luna was not around that time and the business owner was in a hurry.

Based on records from the city’s IT Department, the permit was falsified at 9:55 on July 2 this year. But it was also deleted two minutes later.

“So if you check the permit now, it is not existing,” Sayson said.

CLO summoned anew the employee, but did not show up after the incident.

Sayson said the incident should serve as warning to all employees and transacting public as it constitutes corruption and dishonesty.

“To all transacting citizens in Mandaue City, we will not tolerate red-tape or shortcuts. We will also look at (business owners) if they were in conspiracy with our personnel. This will serve as a message to all the employees that here in Mandaue City, we will not tolerate any form of falsification or any form of corruption, Sayson said.