Why would the Toledo City treasurer keep that much cash on a weekend?”
Cebu Provincial Board (PB) Member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez asked this question, saying this was the “biggest concern” over last Sunday’s burglary inside the Toledo City Hall.
Sanchez, who represents Cebu’s third district where Toledo City is located, said Municipal Treasurer Ofelia Oliva could have ordered her staff to deposit the money in a bank before the weekend for safekeeping.
“You don’t keep that much cash. That was one of my concerns. This also happened in Pinamungajan.
These are very substantial amounts,” said Sanchez, who also chairs the PB’s Committee on Budget and Appropriations.
The burglary in Toledo City was the fifth in a string of burglaries in municipal treasuries within a month in Cebu province.
The Toledo City Hall burglary was the biggest, involving a P6 million payroll for teachers’ salaries, part of which was already disbursed.
Daily Basis
Sanchez arrived from a a three-day general assembly with the East Asian Inter-Regional Tourism Forum (EATOF) in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia when she learned about the incident last Monday.
Sanchez said she immediately talked to Provincial Treasurer Emmanuel Guial about standard operating procedures (SOP) in handling public funds.
She said Guial explained that tax collections should be deposited in the bank daily.
Citing an earlier incident in Pinamungajan town, Sanchez said the municipal government could have easily done that since the bank was near the town hall.
“In fact, in Pinamungajan the bank is very near so I think we will have to conduct further inquiry on that as well,” she said.
Resolution
Tuburan Mayor and League of Municipalities in the Philippines (LMP) Cebu Chapter president Democrito Diamante said the Cebu provincial police should “step up” efforts securing the premises of government offices in remote towns.
Diamante also advised his fellow mayors to ask their local police to deploy officers in their town halls.
“The role of the mayor in peace and order is only secondary to that of the police. This is an insult to them again,” he said.
Diamante and fellow Cebu mayors are in Clark, Pampanga province for the LMP Visayas Inter-Island Cluster Conference from Sept. 9 to 11. He said they are hoping for the speedy resolution of the robberies.
Sanchez said she will sponsor a resolution inviting Guial and other municipal treasurers involved in the recent robberies to appear before the PB.
“There should be a policy that money in that amount should not be kept in the office because there are no security guards,” she said.
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