By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .
IT looked like a family affair.
Ex-councilor President Elipe took in two — not one but two — of his siblings to serve in his staff when he was serving as a member of the city council. Like his sister Pristine Quizon, his brother Premier was also a subject of a graft and public document falsification complaint.
It was Premier a.k.a. Matoy (not Prince as reported yesterday) who posted self-incriminating selfies of the siblings’ travel to China in August 2013 on Facebook, photographs that sparked a full-blown ombudsman investigation into the alleged falsification of documents and into former councilor Elipe’s involvement.
The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has convicted the councilor and his sister, barred them from public office, fined and then slapped them with an 18-year maximum prison sentence for two criminal cases of graft and document falsification in a decision made earlier this month.
But the Office of the Ombudsman has yet to act on a nearly identical complaint against Premier and his politician-brother, said former city administrator Dionnie Gersana.
“Natingala ko ngano nga wala pay resulta ang ombudsman sa akong gi-file nga kaso against nila ni Prince (Premier) ug Elipe nga dungan man unta to nga kaso nga akong gi-file nila ni Pristine ug Elipe,” said Gersana.
During the interview, Gersana kept on mentioning the name “Prince” when he meant Premier who is nicknamed Matoy. There is another Elipe sibling named Prince. Gersana later corrected himself and said he referred to Premier, and not Prince.
He said the ex-councilor was included in the complaint against Premier because it was he who signed his brother’s questioned daily time record (DTR). Premier reportedly served as a “job order” worker in the city council when his brother President was councilor.
Like the office record of Quizon who served as her brother’s secretary in the city council at that time, Premier’s DTR also showed that he supposedly reported for work on the same week in 2013 when he and his sister were in Shanghai.
“Na-a pirmi si Elipe kay siya man ang nagpirma sa falsified DTR nila ni Pristine ug Matoy,” Gersana told the Gold Star Daily.
Gersana said he filed a 2014 complaint with the ombudsman against the then councilor and Premier because of the DTR that made it appear that the former city official’s brother reported for work at the city council from Oct. 16 to Oct. 30 in 2013.
Gersana however said investigation showed that Premier, like Pristine, was a tourist in China from Oct. 25 to Oct. 30 that year.
On Oct. 28, 2013, Premier posted photos of his China tour on Facebook with this message supposedly from The Cathay Room, Peace Hotel: “Good morning, Shanghai — still at hotel, very tired, getting ready… :)”
That apparent Facebook show-off was what did the siblings in, Gersana said.
He said it remained unclear to him why the ombudsman has not elevated Premier’s case to the Sandiganbayan in 2016, the same year it indicted ex-councilor Elipe and his sister Pristine for graft and public document falsification.
Gersana said the complaint against Premier and his brother was similar to the now decided Elipe-Quizon case.
“Duha kana ka kaso akong gi-file separately. Ang usa ang ilang Pristine ug Elipe; ang ika-duha ang ilang Prince (Premier) and Elipe. Kanang duha ka kaso, ako nang gidungan sa pag-file sa ombudsman,” he said.
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