San Juan mayor a no-show in award ceremony at City Hall

DILG National Capital Region director Maria Lourdes Agustin hands out the P2.4 M award to City administrator Ranulfo Dacalos Jr during the flag-raising ceremony at the San Juan City Hall. Also in photo are councilors and officers who were at the flag-raising ceremony. Photo by DILG-NCR

San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez on Monday skipped a ceremony at City Hall for the awarding of a grant from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to the city.

But it was Ranulfo Dacalos Jr., the city administrator, who received the P2.4-million Performance Challenge Fund incentive after San Juan became one of eight cities in Metro Manila to earn the 2017 Seal of Good Local Governance from the DILG.

According to the mayor’s secretary, Violy de Dios, and the city’s Public Information Office, Gomez was suffering from asthma.

Also waiting for the mayor to show up at City Hall were officials from the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) who wanted to serve her with the election recall notice.

Earlier, San Juan Comelec officer Gregorio Bonifacio told the Inquirer that he had asked the Comelec en banc for permission to mail the documents to Gomez after they tried repeatedly but failed to give these to her in person.

The mayor’s political rival, former San Juan Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, who was at City Hall, criticized Gomez for being a no-show.

“She has not been in San Juan City [since] the middle of December last year … In her last [press statement], Gomez said she was ready to face the recall election process, but as of today, she has not been reporting to City Hall, obviously to avoid having to receive [the] notice of sufficiency from the Comelec election officer …,” he said.

“If [I were in her place], I would not give the election officer a hard time anymore. I would go to the Comelec office myself and personally receive the notice of sufficiency to prove to people that I am not scared and I am ready to face the recall election process. But that’s just me. I’m not them and they’re not me,” he added.