Dadivas confident that DQ case will be dismissed

ROXAS CITY, Capiz – Roxas City mayoralty candidate Ronnie Dadivas is confident that the petition for disqualification filed against him and reelectionist Capiz Gov. Antonio del Rosario will be dismissed for lack of bases aside from being malicious and worthless.

Dadivas said the complaint filed by Essex Quintia before the Commission on Election (Comelec) is purely harassment wherein the credibility of the complainant himself is questionable.

“The disqualification filed against me and the governor are merely scraps of papers, purely harassment, unfounded allegations and malicious,” Dadivas said.

The former Roxas City vice mayor has confirmed that he and del Rosario already submitted their counter-affidavits to the Comelec central office in Manila.

He also said that a preliminary conference on the petition had been scheduled on Feb 7, 2019 where they will be met with Quintia.

Dadivas and Rosario are facing disqualification charges when the latter hired the former to head the Gender and Development (GAD) office in violation of Batasang Pambansa 881 of the Omnibus Election Code.

Dadivas, however, said that he can still be hired as contract of service or consultant after filing his Certificate of Candidacy (COC).

He said that there is no employee and employer relation between him and the provincial government.

Dadivas stressed that under the Omnibus Rules on Appointment and Other Personnel Action (Civil Service Memorandum Circular No. 40 series of 1998), services rendered under contract of service and job orders are not considered government service.

“Contracts do not have submitted to Civil Service for approval and there is no employee-employer relationship,” he said, adding that for the sake of delicadeza, he never renewed his contract with the provincial government.

Dadivas said that he will get back at Essex Quintia by filing charges and damages against the latter.

Quintia of Poblacion Ilaya Dao, Capiz filed the disqualification cases before the Comelec national office in Manila on Jan 14, 2019.

Dadivas used to be with the provincial legal office until he resigned when he filed his certificate of candidacy was on October 25, 2018.

But in his four-page complaint, Quintia said del Rosario “unlawfully executed” a contract hiring Dadivas as head of the Community Affairs and Special Program director for GAD of the provincial government of Capiz after the COC filing.

He added that Dadivas’ duties and functions duplicated the work of regular officers or employees.

Dadivas was also given authority and privilege to use and occupy the office of the Provincial Legal Officer and receive P40,000 in monthly salary.

Attached to the complaint is the two-page contract of services between Del Rosario and Dadivas dated October 31, 2018. Dadivas is married to the governor’s niece Joanne.

Quintia said that under Section 66 of BP 881, “candidates holding appointive office or position… shall be considered ipso facto resigned from his office upon filing of his certificate of candidacy.”

Quintia added that the contract between del Rosario and Dadivas, both candidates of the Liberal Party (LP), is “highly anomalous, illegal and is devised to circumvent and violate the provisions of the above-cited law as well as the Constitution.”

He said del Rosario resorted to the simple “expediency of hiring Dadivas to use and continue his office as legal officer in the guise of hiring him as director GAD using public funds as to finance his candidacy which is repugnant of Sections 66 and 261 of BP 881.”

“Petitioner respectfully prays that a decision be rendered declaring del Rosario and Dadivas guilty of violating the Omnibus Election Code and must be disqualified as candidates for the positions of governor of the province of Capiz and mayor of Roxas City, respectively in the 2019 midterm elections, forthwith nullifying their COCs and be proceeded with criminally pursuant to section 264 thereof,” the complaint added.

Earlier, Quintia also filed two administrative cases against del Rosario before the Office of the President for alleged graft and for gambling inside a cockpit.