Corruption complaint filed vs NBI Bacolod chief
By YASMIN PASCUAL-DORMIDO, ABS-CBN Bacolod | 01/08/2009 10:54 PM
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Penuel Tanio being interviewed by reporters |
The head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Bacolod City is facing another complaint – this time on alleged corruption.
A former internal accountant of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters has sought an investigation on NBI Bacolod head Mamerto Cortez for allegedly wrongly filing a complaint against seven employees of the Philippine National Bank involving the NFSP missing fund mess.
Penuel Tanio submitted the request for investigation to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring in Manila last December 23, 2008.
Tanio said he was the one who discovered the missing P8,037,493.77 from the Sugar Market Development Fund that was allegedly illegally withdrawn and released.
The NBI Bacolod filed last month a complaint for qualified theft through falsification of commercial documents against former NFSP employee Anthony Reginald Bitanga and the seven PNB Lacson Branch employees.
The complaint was based on the affidavit of NFSP corporate secretary Augusto Araneta and bookkeeper Marilyn Concha.
Araneta named in the charge sheet bank-approving officers Jose Chad Cervantes, Ma. Allen Dayot, Marilou Castro, and Joel Juguan, and branch managers from 2001 to 2007 Edwin Arroyo, Anecito Partosa and Jose Raul Cataquis.
But in his letter to Mantaring, Tanio said the seven PNB employees are innocent as he was the one who conducted an intensive audit of the fund.
He accused Cortez of manufacturing fake affidavits to include the seven in the case.
"I know who the culprit is. I was the one who conducted the audit. The seven are innocent," Tanio said.
He showed members of media photocopies of documents that, according to him, prove Cortez's alleged extortion activities and the involvement of some NBI employees in alleged corruption.
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NBI bacolod head Cortez |
"It is high time that the agency in Bacolod is cleansed. The people seemed to have lost trust in it," Tanio said.
In a press statement released by NBI Bacolod, the district office strongly denied Tanio's allegations.
The agency stressed it has not violated any procedure in the investigation and filing of the cases.
The agency also belied the complainant's claim that Cortez and some of his agents are corrupt.
Still pending before the Bacolod City Prosecutor's Office is a complaint for acts of lasciviousness against Cortez filed by a 20-year-old woman.
