LIGAO CITY, Albay: A Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge in Albay province has ordered garnishment of less than a million-funds of the sleepy Oas town, for refusing to pay unpaid salaries of a town official who turned whistleblower.

But the whistleblower said that the court orders in his favor have not compelled the town mayor and his cohorts to pay his claims equivalent to 18 months of his salary as of last September. The town has an annual budget of P72 million according to documents.

Court records showed that Oas municipal planning and development officer (MPDO) Jose Carlos Torres has filed a complaint in court against Mayor Gregorio Ricarte for withholding his salaries starting in May 2011, after he had expose an alleged extraordinary bloated land deal worth P15 million more than the actual and real cost of which was only P5 million. Added to his exposé were several scandals involving water project payment and purchase of allegedly bloated multi-cab units—all pending investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mayor Ricarte had denied the charges pointing to his accuser as among the town alleged shady
deal operators during his predecessors’ time.

Ricarte, using an executive order he issued ordered his treasurer and accountant to withhold
Torres’ salaries on allegations the whistleblower went on absence without official leave (AWOL) citing the municipal employees logbook.

Torres said that he never went on AWOL saying that he had been attending seminars and that he was merely placed on floating status after getting the ire of the mayor for allegedly resisting corruption in the town.

Torres claimed that he had been the town MPDO for three decades and was never required to sign in the logbook He said that the logbook requirement came only after he became a whistleblower

In his order dated August 3, 2012, Judge Alben Rabe of RTC Branch 12 said that Mayor Ricarte had committed violations and ordered him to release withheld salaries of Torres starting from May 2011 to September 2012 or a total of P884,155,00. The order, however, was not heeded prompting Torres to seek a mandamus order, which the court granted in its order dated September 26.

Ricarte went to the Court of Appeals (CA) but pending the CA resolution, Judge Rabe ordered on October 10 the garnishment of the town depository—the Land Bank Ligao City branch—the amount equivalent to Torres’ unpaid salaries.