UNA scores delay in dismissal of Aquino allies
ILOILO CITY—The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) has decried the delay in the implementation of dismissal orders against allies of President Aquino and former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, in contrast to the serving of similar orders against candidates and officials identified with the opposition.
Lawyer Cornelio Aldon, UNA coordinator in Western Visayas, cited the case of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, an ally of UNA presidential candidate and Vice President Jejomar Binay, whose 60-day suspension order for ordering the destruction of a center-island in the city’s Barangay Labangon, was already served by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Rama, the UNA chair in Cebu City, is seeking another term in next year’s elections.
Aldon also said the dismissal order against Binay’s son, Makati City Mayor Jejomar
Erwin “Junjun” Binay, was already implemented. The Ombudsman ordered the dismissal over alleged irregularities in the construction of the Makati parking building.
The DILG has yet to implement the Ombudsman’s dismissal order against Mayor Joel Lomugdang of Culasi town in Antique province, Aldon said. The antigraft body found Lomugdang, a Liberal Party (LP) member, guilty of grave misconduct for the procurement of supplies for the municipal public market office from a supplier that is indebted to the mayor.
A check amounting to P9,862 paid by the municipal government to NK Enterprises was endorsed and deposited to the bank account of YL Trading, which is owned by the mayor and his wife, Cecilia Yap-Lomugdang.
The couple admitted that several other checks issued by the municipality to NK Enterprises were eventually deposited in the account, according to the resolution.
Lomugdang said the amounts were in payment for a P10-million loan of Nestor Kho Yute, owner of NK Enterprises, contracted on Jan. 18, 2010. He denied any irregularities, insisting that the procurement was done in good faith and followed procedures.
But the Ombudsman said the “creditor-debtor relationship necessarily makes respondent Lomugdang financially interested in the (debtor’s) business and financial transactions.”
Lomugdang also “intervened” in the procurement process by signing the purchase request, purchase order and issued the check, according to the resolution. The 10-page document was signed by Assistant Special Prosecutor 2 Anna Isabel Aurellano on Nov. 6 and approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on Nov. 13.
The Ombudsman found probable cause to indict the mayor for criminal charges in violation of Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act).
Anthony Nuyda, DILG Western Visayas director, said his office had not received a copy of the dismissal order on Lomugdang and directives from the central office to implement the mayor’s dismissal.
Aldon also cited the failure to implement the dismissal order against Capiz Gov. Victor Tanco Sr., a close ally of the President and Roxas in the LP. Tanco remains in office nearly two months after the Ombudsman announced on Oct. 22 that it had ordered the governor’s dismissal.
The Ombudsman found Tanco and his son, Vladimir, the mayor’s security officer, guilty of grave misconduct for extorting P3 million from Leodegario Labao Jr., owner of Kirskat Venture, the contractor of the P32.9-million Mambusao District Hospital project.
It also found probable cause against the Tancos for violation of Republic Act No. 3019.
DILG officials earlier said the agency had not implemented the dismissal order because the Ombudsman had not clarified if Tanco’s case was covered by the “Aguinaldo doctrine.” The legal doctrine extinguishes administrative cases filed against any public official during the official’s previous term immediately after reelection.
The Supreme Court last month ruled to abandon the “condonation doctrine” which it introduced for the first time in 1959.
The DILG served Vladimir’s dismissal late in October.
