By BOY RYAN B. ZABAL
KALIBO, Aklan — It is not only the Office of the Ombudsman that wants New Washington Mayor Edgar Peralta to speak up.
Any time this week, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) will officially ask Peralta to answer the complaint for, among others, “abuse of authority” that businessman Engr. Jonathan Salvador filed against him.
SP member Rodson Mayor filed a motion to discontinue the investigation on the complaint. The SP entertained it but eventually denied it for lack of basis, according to SP member Plaridel Morania.
“We want to hear the side of Mayor Edgar Peralta,” Morania stressed.
The SP’s investigating committee found the complaint “sufficient in form and substance,” Morania, the committee chair, said.
“I assure the public that I don’t have the intention to delay the investigation. The mayor of New Washington will be accorded the opportunity to be heard,” he said.
Peralta will be given by the SP only 15 days to answer the complaint.
“If there is no evidence against Mayor Peralta, we have no right to suspend him,” said Morania.
Under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, the local legislative council has disciplinary authority over any elected municipal or barangay official.
On the forum-shopping complaint against the mayor, Morania said the SP “will continue to exercise jurisdiction over the complaint, although [it] is a lesser tribunal compared to the Office of the Ombudsman.”
The Ombudsman earlier ordered Peralta to answer the complaint against him filed by Salvador.
Salvador accused the mayor of, among others, “harassing” his cruise ship line business in New Washington.
Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas Pelagio Apostol told Peralta to file a counter-affidavit. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
