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Ex-Samar exec guilty of graft over ‘ghost’ employees
MANILA – The Sandiganbayan has found a former Samar provincial administrator guilty of misappropriating PHP76,000 to wages of “ghost” job order employees in 2005.
In its 64-page decision written by Associate Justice Kevin Narce B. Vivero dated June 25 and recently published online, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division sentenced Romeo Chan Reales to six to 10 years in jail for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and another two to eight years for the crime of malversation through falsification of public documents.
He was also required to pay the provincial government of Samar PHP75,000 plus interest in civil liability.
The court noted that investigation showed that 25 job order workers listed on the time book and payroll of the provincial government were nothing but “ghost names”.
The court noted that the “poorly controlled environment at Samar’s provincial capitol enabled OIC-Provincial Administrator Reales to add fictitious persons to the payroll, put them forward for payment each period and stash away their wages.”
“Taking advantage of the situation required less creativity and more devilry,” the court said.
Reales, the court concluded, acted with criminal intent and wrote entries in each of the summary pf payrolls and time book and payroll public documents which affected its integrity and changed the effects which it would otherwise produce”.