MANILA – The Sandiganbayan has found San Enrique, Iloilo mayor Rosario Mediatrix Fernandez guilty of delayed remittance of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Pag-IBIG premiums of municipal government employees.
Also facing 16 counts of violation of Section 52(c) of the GSIS Act of 1997 (Republic Act 8291) and 11 counts of violation of Section 3(a) of the Home Development Mutual Fund Law of 2009 (Republic Act 9679) is municipal treasurer Imelda Celebrar.
Both Fernandez and Celebrar changed their plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” after being informed of the nature and cause of the accusations against them during their re-arraignment. They were ordered to each pay a fine totaling P700,000.
Fernandez and Celebrar were indicted for failing to timely remit GSIS contributions totaling P5.3 million for the period from January 2011 to October 2011, April 2012, and from June 2012 to October 2012.
The accused also failed to remit Pag-IBIG contributions totaling P620,000 from January 2011 to February 2011, April 2011, October 2011, from December 2011 to February 2012, from August 2012 to October 2012, and December 2012.
Under the law, local chief executives and other responsible officers are mandated to remit GSIS and Pag-IBIG contributions within 30 days from the time that the same shall have been due and demandable.
The employees’ and employers’ GSIS contributions are due within the first 10 days of the calendar month following the month to which the contributions apply, while Pag-IBIG contributions remitted within 15 days from the date the same were collected unless another period is previously agreed upon between the employer and the fund, or within such periods as the fund may prescribe otherwise./PN
