GAMU, Isabela—The Office of the President has stopped the provincial government from suspending Gamu Vice Mayor Fernando Cumigad, a close ally of former Isabela governor and now Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Maria Gracia Cielo Padaca.
Last month, Cumigad was slapped by the Isabela government with a 60-day preventive suspension for failing to return a government vehicle that was issued to him when he was Gamu mayor.
On Jan. 17, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. issued a memorandum to the Isabela government that stopped the execution of the suspension order.
Ochoa advised Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III, who signed the suspension order, that Cumigad had appealed his suspension. Ochoa asked Dy, Gamu Mayor Nestor Uy and the Isabela provincial board to defend their ruling on Cumigad, who claimed that the suspension order was “a political harassment.”
The governor’s office served the suspension order on Dec. 26 last year.
Cumigad, a former Gamu mayor, was suspended due to Uy’s complaint that he continued to have custody of a government-issued Nissan Bravado sport utility vehicle (SUV) despite instructions to return it to the local government after the 2013 elections.
The SUV figured in an August 2013 accident involving another vehicle owned by the ABS-CBN television network’s office in Nueva Vizcaya province.
Because two different offices sought out the vehicle, Cumigad claimed he could not relinquish it until he determined which office had control over the SUV.
In Ilagan City, the Comelec has started reshuffling its personnel in Isabela province, hoping to cleanse the poll body of corrupt election officials.
Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes announced the reshuffle on Jan. 25 when he met with this province’s poll employees at Balay na Isabela in the provincial capitol. “This is our way of ridding our commission of unworthy employees and officials,” he said. Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon