Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores (FILE PHOTO)
ILOILO CITY— Residents of Aklan are asking the judiciary not to bar the implementation of the dismissal orders against Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores and his wife, former Ibajay town mayor Lourdes Miraflores.
The Move to Lifestyle Check Aklan Politicians (LCAP), a loose Facebook-page group with 50,000 members, and the Para Sa Aklan (PSA) movement are pushing for the implementation of the January 25 order of the Ombudsman dismissing the couple from service after they were found guilty of “serious dishonesty and grave misconduct.”
The Ombudsman said the couple failed to properly declared about P12.18 million in assets in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) from 2001 to 2009.
The Court of Appeals’ 16th Division issued a 60-day temporary restraining order on Feb. 27, stopping the Department of Interior and Local Government from enforcing the dismissal order. The court on May 5 granted a writ of preliminary injunction, stopping anew the implementation of the dismissal order until it could fully resolve the merit of a petition for review filed by the Mirafloreses.
The order took effect upon the posting of a P100,000 bond which was paid on May 8, the court had said
A writ of preliminary injunction is a court order which prohibits a person or agency from committing an act or acts until a final order or judgment is issued. (Read more: CA temporarily stops dismissal of Aklan gov, wife from gov’t at https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/
On May 23, around 80 Aklanons held a silent protest in front of the Court of Appeals (CA) to press for the implementation of the dismissal order against the Miraflores couple.
The protesters led by the LCAP and PSA held posters and stood at the entrance of the appellate court’s central office in Ermita, Manila.
“We want to show our sentiments that the dismissal order of the Ombudsman should be implemented,” retired ship captain Ramy Panagsagan, one of the organizers of the protest, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.
He said those who joined the protest were Manila-based Aklanons who have been vocal against corruption.
Panagsagan ran and lost as an independent candidate for representative of the lone congressional district of the province in 2013 but he said politics was not the issue in their protest.
The protesters started assembling at an entrance leading to the CA’s office early morning and started leaving late in the morning.
The Ombudsman had said that the couple’s increase in net worth could not be justified by their income.
It said that in a span of nine years, the couples net worth increased by P10,237,518.02 from a negative P288,134.02 in 2001 to P9,949,384 in 2009.
Miraflores has denied any irregularities saying there has been confusion because of the change in the data being required in the SALN form.
The couple has also invoked the “condonation” doctrine in seeking the overturning of the dismissal order.
The doctrine extinguishes administrative cases filed against any public official during the official’s previous term immediately after the official’s re-election.
The Supreme Court in a ruling on April 12, 2016, rejected the doctrine but said its application would be prospective.
The LCAP said in a statement that it had gathered pieces of evidence for six years to back the complaint against the Miraflores couple.
“The group hopes that if (our) grassroots efforts succeed, it would positively influence others to demand honesty, proper conduct and productive results from their elected officials,” LCAP said in its statement. SFM