BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The Provincial Legal Office (PLO) of the Negros Occidental provincial government recommended the preventive suspension of five personnel from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) over an alleged drinking binge during an official travel to Victorias City on July 15.
PLO head Atty. Alberto Nellas Jr. recommended to the Provincial Human Resources and Management Office (PHRMO) to place the following on preventive suspension:
* Engineer Jimbo Garsula, Engineer IV, OPA
* Engineer Ramelo Letran, Engineer III, OPA
* Engineer German Abihay, Engineer III, OPA
* Engineer Rezin Palacios, Engineer I, OPA
* Maria Luisa Abaño, PDA, OPA
All five OPA personnel were accused of misuse of government vehicle, and grave misconduct.
According to the complaint filed by a driver working for the provincial government, the five went to Victorias City Hall on July 15 on “official travel.”
However by 8 p.m. on the said date, the driver claimed, the five failed to show up for the return trip to Bacolod City and it was later discovered that the five were inside a restaurant.
One of the involved OPA employees would allegedly throw expletives against the driver after he called them out and told them that they needed to return to Bacolod City.
After being slapped with show cause orders, one of the OPA employees replied back, stating it was “an insult to refuse the hospitality of the counterpart of an agriculturist of Victorias.”
Personnel from the Victorias City Agriculturist Office has also been placed under investigation by Mayor Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez, who has expressed his disappointment over the incident.
“We do not tolerate that unprofessional acts especially during official business,” Benitez said./PN
