Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan

I, Bernadine S. Joson, of legal age, married, until recently Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator and concurrent Secretary to the Sangguniang Bayan of the Municipality of Lagayan, Abra, with address for purposes of this complaint at Roque and Butuyan Law Offices, Unit 1904 Antel 2000 Corporate Center, 121 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City 1277, hereby depose and state that:

What I wish to say in the pages of this Complaint-Affidavit is a story of how key members of a political family in a small far-flung, underdeveloped town in Abra, over a period of a little more than a decade, in the absence of a viable system of checks and balances, has been raiding and plundering the town’s coffers. This was possible because during this period and until now, key members of the family and their cronies controlled key offices of the local government, including the Sangguniang Bayan.

It is a story of unmitigated greed of government officials in a forgotten town where to date, they perpetuate a reign of fear and plunder. I want to put a stop to it, for the good of my own townspeople who had borne in silence the many years of insufferable neglect and indignities.  I am also doing this for myself and my family, because for so long I have allowed myself to be abused and exploited.

I shudder at the thought that what the key characters in this revolting story of big-time corruption in a small town away from the center is being repeated all over the country in such places where the powers-that-be lord it over their constituents, who are kept in the grip of fear and ignorance.

This account only covers the years 2003 to 2010; more anomalies happened in the municipality of Lagayan from 1998 to 2002 but for lack of access to records, I could not include these anomalies in this Consolidated Complaint.

This is a Consolidated Complaint against former Mayor Cecilia Seares Luna for the plunder of the public coffers of the municipality of Lagayan when she was the local chief executive for the years 2003 to 2006, or a four-year period, where available records show that at least Php 56,192,920.57in government funds in her responsibility cannot be accounted for.  This amount includes funds intended for the salary and other benefits of municipal employees, savings from funds allocated for vacant positions and underpayment of salaries of 32 municipal employees, calamity funds and funds intended for development projects.

I am certain so much more in public funds have also been squandered under her watch in the years 1998 to 2002, but for the fact that I do not have records for these.

I charge Jendricks S. Luna, the incumbent president of the Association of Barangay Captains in Lagayan, for the plunder of the public coffers of the Municipality of Lagayan in the amount of  at least Php77,714,221.67 in public funds he systematically squandered for purposes other than those these were allocated for during the years 2007 to 2010 when he was the town mayor, including funds intended for the salary and other benefits of municipal employees,  savings from funds allocated for vacant positions and underpayment of salaries of 32 municipal employees, calamity funds and funds  intended for development projects.

The plunder committed by mother and son take together from the years 2003 to 2010  amounts to total of at least Php  133, 907, 142.24.

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