Philippine actor-politician Paulate sacked for dishonesty

Manila: Veteran Philippine actor-turned-politician Roderick Paulate has been sacked by the anticorruption watchdog after he was found guilty of dishonesty during his stint as Quezon City councillor from 2010 to 2013, officials said on Thursday.

Paulate, 55, who became famous for his comic role playing a closet homosexual masquerading as a tough guy — was ordered dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman after he was found guilty of using “ghost” employees and padding the city government’s payroll.

Aside from Paulate, another other former Quezon City councillor and now member of the House of Representatives, Francisco Calalay Jr, was also found guilty of “falsification of officials documents, serious dishonesty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and grave misconduct.”

Investigations conducted by the Ombudsman revealed that in 2010, Paulate and Calalay had authorised the hiring of 60 contractual employees performing the supposed tasks of field inspectors, district coordinators and office aides.

“At the end of each month, Calalay and Paulate would issue certifications that the job contractors rendered actual service,” the Ombudsman said

Collusion

However, it was found out that each job contractor had different signatures appearing in the payrolls.

The contractual employees were paid salaries ranging from P5,000 (Dh385) to P10,000 (Dh770).

The Ombudsman also found collusion among the two councillors and two of their subordinates, Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde, to make it appear on paper that actual people were hired to perform jobs.

“The falsified payrolls would not have been realised were it not for the principal participation of their superiors Calalay and Paulate as Quezon City Councilors,” Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said.

Due to the offences they committed, the two officials were ordered permanently disqualified from holding public office and their retirement benefits forfeited.

More popularly known as Kuya Dick or simply “Dick” to Filipino television and film viewers, Paulate had a show business career that spanned for nearly five decades.

He started out as a child actor in the 1968 film Kasalanan Kaya (Is It A Sin?) where he appeared together with then young budding screen thespian and now Filipino screen legend Vilma Santos.

Paulate went on to appear in numerous television shows and movies until 2010, when he got elected as Quezon City councillor.

Paulate was among the numerous former and current actors in the Philippines who used their popularity on screen as leverage to launch their political careers.