Isabela dads OK filing of raps against vice mayor

CITY OF ILAGAN, Philippines—The Isabela provincial board on Wednesday approved the filing of an indirect contempt case against a vice mayor for his failure to heed a four-month suspension order for grave abuse of authority.

Voting 11-2, the board members, led by presiding officer Vice Gov. Antonio Albano, asked the provincial legal office to file the charges against Gamu Vice Mayor Fernando Cumigad in the Regional Trial Court for his continued refusal to serve his suspension.

The board’s majority described Cumigad’s action as a blatant disregard of the legal process.

However, Board Members Randolph Joseph Arreola, a lawyer, and Manuel Alejandro opposed the filing of indirect contempt.

Arreola said Cumigad had a pending appeal in the Office of the President, making the filing of the indirect contempt premature.

The board on Feb. 18 suspended Cumigad for four months for grave abuse of authority after he failed to return the service vehicle he used when he was town mayor.

The board acted on an administrative complaint filed by Gamu Mayor Nestor Uy, who accused Cumigad of keeping a government-issued Nissan Bravado sport utility vehicle (SUV) despite instructions to return it to the local government after the 2013 elections.

Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III originally placed Cumigad under a 60-day preventive suspension in December 2013, pending the resolution of Uy’s complaint.

The governor’s office served the suspension order on Dec. 26 last year but was stopped by the Office of the President. In a

Jan. 17 memorandum to Dy’s office, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said Cumigad had appealed his case.

Cumigad questioned the filing of the indirect contempt case.

“The question is, ‘Can they implement it?’ They can file the case because it is their privilege but the case is on appeal,” he said.

Cumigad, a three-term mayor and an ally of former Isabela governor and now Commission on Elections Commissioner Maria Gracia Cielo Padaca, has been serving as presiding officer of the town council, although Councilor Noel Abaya has taken his oath as acting vice mayor.

Dy said he would leave the case to the provincial legislative body.

“I will let the provincial board do what they want,” he said.

The SUV that is the subject of the case also figured in an August 2013 accident involving another vehicle owned by the ABS-CBN television network in Nueva Vizcaya province.  Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon