Marikina gov’t denies suspension order vs mayor

The Marikina City government has denied reports that Mayor Del de Guzman and two other government officials have been suspended for six months after the Ombudsman found them guilty of negligence.

In a statement, Ma. Luisa Esquivias, director of the city’s Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said that the Metro Manila office has yet to issue any notice about the Ombudsman’s order.

She added that if there was such an order from the Office of the Ombudsman, the DILG-NCR would receive it and endorse it to her office for implementation.

The case started in May 2011 when several residents of North Rim View Park in Barangay (village) Concepcion Dos filed charges against De Guzman, city transportation management and development office head Rommel Felipe, then city engineer Alfonso Espiritu and Barangay Concepcion Dos chairperson after they allegedly failed to act on their complaints to remove the boom gate and a guardhouse on Sunrise Street.

The Ombudsman dismissed the charges but in a separate decision dated Feb. 14, it found the respondents liable for simple neglect of duty and meted out a punishment of six-month suspension without pay.

“We are fortunate that the Ombudsman dismissed the charges filed against us. However, they found us administratively guilty of a lesser charge of simple neglect of duty with a reprimand with warning which we are appealing through a motion for reconsideration because there was no neglect of duty and steps have been taken to address the complaint,” De Guzman said in a statement.

He argued that he was no longer subject to administrative sanctions for acts committed in his previous tenure based on previous rulings of the Supreme Court in similar cases.

He also denied that he failed to act on the complaint as he referred the complaint to the city administrator.

The boom gate was removed but it was reinstalled later on to counteract the rising crime in the area.

“The reprimand is unfortunate but we cannot please everybody. As public officials, we are vulnerable to all kinds of charges in the course of implementing our programs,” De Guzman said.