Municipal collector faces jail time for dipping into public funds to support ailing spouse

A MUNICIPAL revenue collector from Santa Ignacia, Tarlac is facing two to six years imprisonment after the Sandiganbayan affirmed his conviction on a malversation charge for failure to turn in his collection in full.

On top of serving time behind bars, the anti-graft court barred Joseph Pattawi from holding any public office and fined him P343,314.58 with six percent legal interest.

Pattawi failed in his bid for the reversal of the April 28, 2022 decision of the Tarlac Regional Trial Court (RTC) which found him guilty of misappropriating and using his collections for his personal purposes.

Records showed the accused, an employee of the municipal government of Santa Ignacia, was detailed as a collector under the Municipal Treasurer’s Office from 2007 to 2013.

A cash examination conducted by the Commission on Audit in October 2013 revealed a shortage in Pattawi’s collections amounting to P343,314.58 which he acknowledged in a certification as an accountable officer.

A demand letter dated December 20, 2013 addressed to Pattawi required him to turn over the missing amount with an explanation of why the deficiency happened.

In his letter to the audit team, Pattawi said he incurred a shortage because he used part of his collections to pay the hospital bills of his wife and to support other relatives in his care.

He said he is selling some assets to pay off his accountability.

A separate letter to the Office of the Mayor said he had made a partial payment of P5,000, which was acknowledged by the Municipal Treasurer.

However, a criminal charge was filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman on February 1, 2018 for malversation of public funds, which was resolved against him by the Tarlac RTC.

In his appeal, Pattawi said the witnesses called by the prosecution to testify against him had no personal knowledge of the matter hence their testimonies should not have been given weight for being hearsay.

He added that he was wrongly convicted since the evidence fell short of proving that there was an actual shortage in total collections of the municipal government.

But the Sandiganbayan was unimpressed.

“This Court finds the appeal bereft of merit. Contrary to the claim of