ILOILO City – Four city hall job hires have accused three city government officials of electioneering, according to City Legal Office (CLO) chief Atty. Edgar Gil.
The complainants were Dennis Biñas, Julia Bitonga, Jena Jose, and Donephine Domingo while the three officials were Danny Tan, Vincent de la Cruz and Eireen Manikan.
In a complaint filed at the CLO on Aug. 22, the job hires claimed the three officials violated the Election Code/Fair Election Act, Civil Service Law and Republic Act 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees) during the recent election period.
Government employees are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activities.
Tan, de la Cruz and Manikan could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
“They will be summoned kag ipa-explain kon ano ang natabo,” said Gil.
Two of the complainants were maintenance personnel assigned at the city government’s Diamond Jubilee Hall on the corner of Mabini and General Luna streets.
They claimed that sometime in February they were summoned to a meeting at city hall where Tan told them to support the candidacy of then mayor Jose Espinosa III.
They viewed the statement as a threat “since our employment is at the stake if we will not follow his instruction.”
“We were likewise directed to recruit at least 10 persons to attend ‘Pag-ulikid’,” they stated in their complaint.
“Pag-ulikid sang Syudad” was a community outreach program of then mayor Espinosa. It brought city government frontline services to the barangays.
The other two complainants were street sweepers in Lapuz district.
Sometime in March and April 2019, they claimed, de la Cruz and Manikan told them to support Espinosa or lose their jobs.
Espinosa lost to now mayor Jerry Treñas in the midterm elections./PN
