LAOAG CITY, June 26—The controversy-tainted City Treasurer’s Office is back to normal operation after it got temporarily paralyzed for a week following a marathon investigation by joint team of Commission on Audit and regional Bureau of Local Government Finance on the alleged missing P90 million city public fund, officials announced.
City legal officer Marlon Manuel reported the back-to-normal operation at the city treasurer’s office as he confirmed the designation of Diomedes Gayban to be the acting city treasurer.
He said he was a witness to the receipt of the communication from the regional director (of Finance Department) addressed to City Mayor Chevylle Fariñas designating Gayban as the OIC city treasurer.
Gayban will start from zero without prejudice to the COA findings, lawyer Manuel said. He assured that the affected forty one city employees, whose salaries were delayed, could now receive their pay wages.
Earlier, Bureau of Immigration officials had flashed report that City Treasurer Elena Asuncion had left the country.
Report said she flew to Hawaii, USA on June 14 aboard a Philippine Airlines plane based on the Immigration office monitor.
Report further said that she later moved to Colorado, USA and from there, authorities lost track of her whereabouts.
We shall ask the concerned higher authorities to cancel her passport so that she could not further flee to other places, Manuel told the media.
So far, as the marathon investigation ended on Friday, June 24, the final report on the overall result of the probe by the joint COA-BLGF team was not yet disclosed at press time.
In an ambush interview, City Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas vowed to help pursue cases in administrative and criminal aspect against the culprit and cohorts, if there are any, in an effort to seek justice for the city mates as taxpayers who own the embezzled money.#
