INQUIRER.net PhlPost employees now suspects in P9.4-M robbery By Delfin Mallari Jr. |Inquirer Southern Luzon 3:11 pm | Thursday, October 17th, 2013 Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/509079/phlpost-employees-now-suspects-in-p9-4-m-robbery#ixzz3CHa6DrVJ Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook LUCENA CITY, Philippines – Police in Quezon have linked employees of the Philippine Postal Corp. PhlPost to last Tuesday’s robbery of P9.4 million intended for distribution to the poor under the government’s poverty alleviation program that a PhlPost crew was to have delivered to the town of San Francisco, police said Thursday. Chief Insp. Von June Nuyda, chief of police in the town of Pagbilao where the alleged hold-up took place, said investigators now considered four PhlPost employees — Odith Cadano, Geraldine Badong, Niño Calabia and Patrick James Putungan — and the driver of the van — Brian Dizon — as suspects. “The PhlPost intelligence division is also conducting separate investigation on their suspicion that their employees connived with the robbers,” Nuyda said in a telephone interview. He said the driver of the van, who was hired by the leader of the PhlPost team transporting the money, was also included as suspect. The driver claimed he was shot by the robbers in the foot when he supposedly resisted the robbery. “But we have yet to file the case against them. We’re still conducting investigation to tie up some loose ends,” Nuyda said. Nuyda told the Inquirer on Wednesday that the authorities already then suspected that the robbery was an “inside job.” He said the money was being transported in a van by five employees of the PhlPost regional office in San Pablo City when they stopped for lunch at a roadside eatery on the Maharlika Highway in Barangay (village) Silangang Malicboy in Pagbilao. After lunch, the driver of the van returned to the vehicle to start the engine but was approached by three men who demanded to be given the ignition key. According to Nuyda, Dizon told investigators he refused to turn over the key and was shot by one of the robbers in the foot. One of the robbers then drove the van and parked it on the middle of the road, resulting in a traffic jam, after which the robbers grabbed the money bag inside the van and sped off on a motorcycle with no plates. Nuyda said the money sack contained an estimated P9.4 million intended for beneficiaries of the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program, also known as 4Ps, in San Francisco town in Quezon. Nuyda cited a number of observations that gave rise to police suspicions of an “inside job,” among them the robbers’ knowledge of the precise time and place the delivery van’s crew would stop by for lunch. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/509079/phlpost-employees-now-suspects-in-p9-4-m-robbery#ixzz3CHZqk8vE Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook INQUIRER.net COA: P5B CCT funds lost in Philpost By Gil C. Cabacungan |Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:59 am | Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014 Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/634930/coa-p5b-cct-funds-lost-in-philpost#ixzz3CHahYJJ6 Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost) has accumulated P5 billion in unliquidated cash advances from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), funds that were meant for distribution to a million beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in 9,657 municipalities last year. In its latest annual audit report on Philpost released last Friday, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the P4.936 billion in Philpost unliquidated advances were 1,000 percent more than the P449.841 million unliquidated balance that the agency incurred in 2012. These unliquidated funds in the hands of payout and cluster head postmasters “exposed these funds to malversation, theft or other risks,” the COA said. Philpost is one of the monetary conduits used by the DSWD for the CCT component of its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which provides cash incentives to marginalized families to encourage them to send their children to school and get regular maternal checkups. The DSWD primarily sends out its monthly dole-outs through Landbank branches nationwide. To complement the Landbank distribution system, the DSWD tapped Philposts’ mail stations in Ilocos Sur, Davao del Sur, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Palawan, Rizal, La Union, Benguet and Mt. Province as payout centers. Philpost said it failed to account for the roughly P5 billion CCT funds it received from the DSWD because of serious glitches in the CCT computerized system of the Landbank that have led to errors and duplication of work in uploading payroll records. It said postmasters were given additional work with no additional staff, and the increase in volume of CCT transactions was unexpected and abrupt. Massive funding The DSWD has long been criticized for getting massive funding increases for its CCT program in the past four years despite its sorely limited capacity to deploy such huge amounts to millions of beneficiaries over a thousand municipalities and ensure no leakages or pilferage. The COA itself noted that the shortcomings in the implementation of the CCT program was a contributing factor in the rise of unliquidated advances in the program’s conduits like the Philpost. The audit report said that Philpost’s postmasters have yet to receive the DSWD advice on the date of distribution to beneficiaries. It also said that Philpost spent an additional P13.532 million to cover for losses arising from robberies and cases of holdup of personnel carrying out the CCT program. Weak accounting “The weak or even seemingly lack of processing, internal accounting and reporting controls in the implementation and operations of the CCT program, if not addressed immediately, would further result in the unmanageable proportion of unliquidated cash advances,” the COA said. A memorandum of agreement between the DSWD and Philpost on the CCT distribution exempted Philpost and the Landbank from any liabilities arising from loss or damage in the course of their duty, the COA noted. The Philpost management led by Postmaster General Josefina de la Cruz provided COA with a liquidation report on P2.282 billion of the CCT funds in the agency’s hands last July. The COA, however, noted that the reports were “stated in lump-sum amounts without the details or breakdown that could be matched with individual certification of liquidation by the DSWD.” Massive multitasking Philpost blamed the lack of man power for failing to liquidate roughly half of the P10.992 billion obtained from the DSWD for distribution to CCT beneficiaries in 2013. “As in any institution, the lack of personnel leads to lack of division of labor and invariably causes errors and inefficiencies due to massive multitasking,” it added, noting that a single payout would take four days to process. Aside from concerns on the CCT’s operations, the COA also criticized Philpost management for giving gifts, making donations and sponsoring church and school events; for approving P1.085 million in excess per diems for committee meetings; increasing the postmaster general and her assistant’s salary by P1.68 million without the President’s approval; unauthorized payment of P1.596 million performance-based incentive to its directors; P1.79 million in illegal subsidies to car loans of officers and directors; and doubling the number of consultants to 36 which cost P10 million in additional fees from the previous year. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/634930/coa-p5b-cct-funds-lost-in-philpost#ixzz3CHaTopIL Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 19:37:06 +0000
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