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[av_heading heading=’ABUSE OF POWER? Bacolod councilors contest suspension ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, December 1, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Incumbent city councilors the Office of the Ombudsman suspended for one month have resorted to various legal remedies.
Two councilors Panay News spoke with said they were contesting the ruling that found them guilty of simple neglect of duty.
Sonya Verdeflor stressed that they were dismissed over a violation they were not charged with while Wilson Gamboa Jr. claimed that the Ombudsman “abused its power and authority.”
Ordered suspended were incumbent councilors Verdeflor, Gamboa and Em Ang, and former councilors Jocelle Sigue, Roberto Rojas, Archie Baribar, and Alex Paglumotan.
Verdeflor told Panay News she filed a petition for review at the Court of Appeals while Gamboa said he filed a motion for reconsideration at the Ombudsman.
According to Verdeflor, Ang also filed a petition for review at the appellate court. Ang has yet to confirm this as of press time.
Their suspension was effective Nov. 29.
Verdeflor said the Interior department has already served her the suspension order.
“Out of respect” for the order, she will not report to her office despite her pending petition with the Court of Appeals, she said.
Verdeflor asserted that they were charged not with simple neglect of duty but with abuse of authority and “ignorance of the law,” and these were all dismissed.
In ordering their suspension, the Ombudsman “abused its power and authority,” Gamboa said.
Signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on Sept. 22, the order stemmed from complaint that Juan Ramon Guanzon filed last year.
Guanzon accused the councilors of violating City Ordinance No. 506, series of 2009 for approving a request for cockfighting in Barangay Tangub in April 2016.
The ordinance regulates the fees and issuance of licenses for the construction, establishment, operation, and maintenance of cockpits and cockfighting in the city.
Gamboa claimed that the ordinance was “silent on the length of time” of the cockfight during Barangay Tangub’s fiesta./PN
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