An employee of the Cebu City Hall assigned at the Market Operation Division of Carbon Freedom Park Market was arrested through an entrapment operation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI-7) for alleged extortion. | Photo courtesy of NBI-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has fired the Carbon Market aid who was entrapped by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives for extortion.
Rama said that whether the market aide was a regular, casual, or job order employee, she will be terminated from her job because she was caught in the act of doing a crime.
“Of course she will be removed. It was entrapment, right there in flagrante, the next thing is the termination. What else should be done? That’s it,” said Rama.
Kara Marie Bargamento, 29, an Administrative Aide III, in charge of the Market Operation Division of the Freedom Park was entrapped by the NBI on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, after allegedly demanding P100,000 from some vendors affected in the modernization of the market.
Bargamento was arrested on Wednesday afternoon in a stall next to her office inside the market along with numerous Certificates of Award. She was caught ‘red-handed’ by undercover agents of the NBI-7 receiving marked money from a complainant vendor.
Mayor Rama said this is exactly why he wanted to evaluate all employees of the city government even before Mayor Edgardo Labella died when he assumed the full powers of an acting mayor.
He had appointed overseers in the departments to review and evaluate the efficiency and productivity of the offices and their workers. The evaluation would take at least a month.
“An opportunity has been provided. By now if nakahibalo kong kawatan, tapulan, ako pa diay nang ihire? Unsa man nang kalakiha? What kind of manager have I become if I will be hiring nga wala nagpakita nga rehabilitated, rejuvinated na sila?” said the mayor.
Rama said that the incident shows that there is a need to evaluate the employees at City Hall who may have been abusing their positions undetected. /rcg
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