Samar mayor defies Ombud suspend order

Tacloban City — A municipal mayor in Eastern Samar has defied the six-month preventive suspension issued by the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas pending resolution of the administrative case filed against him.

Taft Mayor Francisco Adalim refused to accept a copy of the order on Friday when it was served to him by Manuel Lagrimas, Department of Interior and Local Government provincial director, in his residence in barangay Poblacion, Taft.

He also issued a memorandum to Vice Mayor Diego Lim, instructing the latter not to discharge the functions of the mayor, even if Lim had been designated by the DILG as acting mayor.

Lim told the Inquirer in an interview yesterday that Adalim continued to hold office on the second floor of the three-story municipal building. He added that the department heads and employees of the Taft municipal government, who were identified with Adalim, refused to recognize him as the acting mayor.

“Even the collection of our garbage is paralyzed because the equipment used for the collection is ordered stop by (Adalim),” Lim said.

But Darwin Bibar, DILG-Eastern Visayas legal officer, stressed that the suspension order was deemed served even if Adalim refused to accept it.

“Under legal term, that (suspension order) is deemed as constructively served to him,” Bibar said yesterday. He added the DILG had also designated Lim as acting mayor while first councilor, Alma Balibag, would sit as acting vice mayor.

The Inquirer tried to reach Adalim but repeated calls to his mobile phone were unanswered.

The Ombudsman-Visayas slapped Adalim with a six-month preventive suspension pending resolution of the administrative charges of oppression, gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service filed against him by the Civil Service Commission.

The case stemmed from Adalim’s refusal to implement the CSC order that directed him to reinstate the 25 municipal employees whose employment he terminated in August 2005 for reportedly being absent without approved leave.

The employees filed a complaint against Adalim before the CSC. /INQUIRER