Two officials of a barangay (village) in Capiz have been suspended for three months by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas after being found guilty of simple misconduct over a typhoon “Yolanda” assistance fund.
Barangay Kagawad (councilors) Marilyn Delfin and Marites Borro, both from Ilaya, Pontevedra in Capiz were also charged with grave coercion together with a barangay day care worker, Ma. Lyle Cortel, after preventing a resident to leave the municipal hall without turning over a portion of emergency shelter assistance (ESA).
Based on the complaint filed by Mildred Vargas, she went to the Pontevedra municipal hall together with her daughter some time in 2015 to claim the P30,000 given by the government as ESA for victims of Yolanda.
Vargas said that out of the P30,000 ESA, P10,000 would be given to the barangay officials for the benefit of other residents who could not avail of the cash assistance.
Upon receiving her part of the money, Vargas was then forcibly prevented from leaving the hall by the barangay officials without turning over the agreed P10,000. A measly P500 was returned to Vargas after a “brief scuffle.”
Deputy Ombudsman Paul Elmer Clemente said preventing Vargas and her daughter from leaving the premises of the municipal hall against their will was “not made under authority of law or in the exercise of a lawful right.”
“Even granting that complainant agreed to share a portion of the cash assistance she received from the government, the same is not a sufficient justification for respondents to use force or violence against complainant’s daughter and prevent her from leaving the municipal hall until she would give the amount of P10,000,” he added.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has been directed to implement the suspension order. JE/rga