IT DOES SEEM that Mayor-elect Geronimo Buenaventura Treñas a.k.a. Jerry Treñas is all set and raring to claim his rightful place at city hall as new mayor of “I Am Iloilo City”. And rightly so as after the smoke has cleared the natives gave him a humungous lead over incumbent Mayor Joe Espinosa III.
And nobody claimed they were cheated. Nobody tried to analyse and justify why they lost. There seems to be no reports of “vote-buying.” The natives accepted the fact that somebody won the elections whether they like the winners or not.
There we have Mayor-elect Treñas ready to “hit the ground running” (to use Congresswoman-elect Julienne “Jam-jam” Baronda’s phrase) come June 30. Considering he is on the portly side I simply doubt if he can still run literally.
But I have no doubt he is ready to take “I Am Iloilo City” to the next level or to “level up.” The only little irritation coming his way are the “beauticians from the other parlor” still entrenched at city hall.
In the natural world, when a dog comes in to a new territory his natural instinct would be to “mark” his boundary and control of the territory, and that’s what Mayor-elect Treñas is poised to do. Now I’m not saying he’s going to “mark” the four corners of city hall but he’s going to establish his control by coming in with his people. Seems natural and has been the practice of almost all politicians from mayors to governors.
Before that even happens, a potential flashpoint seems to be looming. Excerpts from the May 20 issue of Panay News:
City hall purge looms: Treñas names dep’t heads, personnel on chopping block
There will be a full audit of city government personnel, according to Mayor-elect Jerry Treñas. The city government has taken in a lot of “illegal job hires” he said, and they were made to work as personal household help, family drivers, nannies, waitresses, even as barbers.
The come-backing mayor has also given several city hall department heads and other city government personnel a choice: resign now or face charges for electioneering, graft and corruption, even immorality, among others.
They should “find other gainful employment” outside the city government “otherwise we will have to deal with them,” said Treñas.
“I will be asking for a straightforward personnel audit when I come in,” he told Panay News yesterday.
Treñas accused several executive assistants/consultants and regular employees (and we need not mention their names) to have campaigned for Mayor Jose Espinosa III during the recent midterm elections, thereby engaging in prohibited partisan political activity:
These city hall executives and personnel should choose between having a “graceful exit” or facing a string of charges, said Treñas.
This early his lawyers are now gathering affidavits of witnesses against these people, he revealed.
And this is what outgoing mayor Joe Espinosa III has to say about the looming “purge” at city hall:
Meanwhile, Espinosa denied ordering city government department heads and other city government officials to campaign for him.
“They were just doing their jobs. Gin-detach ko gid na sila sa kampanyahanay,” he said.
Espinosa also said regular/permanent city government employees have security of tenure under the civil service law.
“Elected officials come and go (but) ang aton da ‘ya empleyado nga under sa (civil service) sila na ‘ya ang naga-continue sang (government) services,” he stressed.
A flashpoint indeed. Of course, all those “beauticians from the other parlor” that are executive assistants and consultants are all classified by the Civil Service rules as co-terminus and bound by:
Under Section 14 (2), Rule V of the Omnibus Civil Service Rules Implementing Book V of the Administrative Code of 1987, an appointment coterminous with the appointing authority is co-existent with the tenure of the appointing authority or at his pleasure.
Meaning, since their appointing authority’s — which is outgoing mayor Joe Espinosa III – tenure ended with his failing to get re-elected, these “beauticians from the other parlor” have no choice but to also vacate their positions as mandated by the Civil Service Law.
The stumbling block in Mayor-elect Treñas “marking” his control at city hall are the regular and permanent “beauticians from the other parlor” as they have security of tenure as provided for by Republic Act No. 6656 – An Act to Protect the Security of Tenure of Civil Service Officers and Employees in the Implementation of Government Reorganization.
Of course, Mayor-elect Treñas can always file charges against these “beauticians from the other parlor” as what he has been saying (that is the only legal way to get rid of them), there’s also the option of making life difficult for these “beauticians” by assigning them to the garbage dump, away from the “beauty parlor.”
But does he really think these “beauticians from the other parlor” will take it lying down? Of course not. They’ll fight tooth and nail for their jobs.
We’re all for “I Am Iloilo City” to “level up” but is being side-lined and distracted with long-drawn court cases the way to “level up”? Certainly not.
Definitely, the executive assistants/consultants have to go as mandated by law but for the regular employees, they swore an oath before the Civil Service when they were given their regular appointments to do what is expected of a civil servant and in the discharge of their duties as civil servants there is always the Presumption of Regularity. So there. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
