• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Sagay City Treasurer Juvy Pinongan is in hot water after she failed to distribute the P7.3-million Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) of personnel assigned at the Alfredo Marañon Sr. Memorial District Hospital.
Mayor Narciso Javelosa Jr. said on Monday (Sept. 23) that Pinongan is being investigated by the City Legal Office.
Doctors, nurses and other health workers filed a complaint through a formal letter addressed to him.
In the meantime, Javelosa said he borrowed P7.3 million to pay the HEA of the hospital workers who rendered services during the Covid-19 pandemic period.
Hospital administration office head Alain Ray Rivera said that 276 health workers are eligible as HEA beneficiaries.
Moreover, Javelosa said that Pinongan has withdrawn HEA funds in the amount of P22 million on Aug. 16, which she distributed from Aug. 19 to 22.
However, she failed to release the remaining amount of P7.3 million for still unknown reasons, he added.
When he summoned and confronted Pinongan at his office, Javelosa said the city treasurer told him that she had been busy, and forgot the combination numbers of the vault, where the money was allegedly being kept.
He described the claims of Pinongan as “impossible”, stressing that she had been using the vault for several years.
Pinongan, who was transferred from the Provincial Capitol to the Sagay City in 2018, went on leave from Aug. 29 to Sept 5.
When she returned to duty on Sept. 6, she was accompanied by a lawyer, the mayor said.
Javelosa said that Pinongan is still on active duty while he assigned lawyer Brent Donasco at the City Treasurer’s Office to monitor her actions. | GB
