Ombudsman suspends 8 Antique provincial board members

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Lawmaking in the province of Antique will surely be affected as the provincial board will lack a quorum to conduct business in the next six months.

This, as the Office of the Ombudsman ordered a six-month preventive suspension without pay for eight members of Antique’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) due to multiple administrative charges.

The suspension order, issued on August 1, applies to SP members Egidio Elio, Rony Molina, Victor Condez, Alfie Jay Niquia, Plaridel Sanchez IV, Mayella Mae Ladislao, Kenneth Dave Gasalao, and Julius Cezar Tajanlangit.

The suspension is not punitive; it is meant to prevent the respondents from intervening in the ongoing investigation.

The suspension stems from an administrative complaint filed against them for oppression, grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, and gross neglect under the 2017 Revised Rules of Administrative Cases in the Civil Service and violation of Section 4 of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

“This Office finds sufficient grounds to preventively suspend herein respondents considering that there is strong evidence showing their guilt; the charges against them involve grave misconduct, oppression, and gross neglect in the performance of duty which may warrant their removal from the service,” the Ombudsman order read.

The complaint was filed by Ray Ventura and Stephen Jules S. Siblag, alleging that the eight officials had refused to perform their duties as members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Antique.

The officials are accused of delaying the approval of two supplemental annual investment programs submitted by Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao earlier this April.

The programs were eventually approved by the provincial board through resolutions.

Following the approval, Cadiao on May 9 prepared Supplemental Budget No. 1, supported by financial documents indicating an amount of P1.075 billion, with the request for a “prompt action” from the board.

Instead of taking prompt action on the request, the complainants alleged that the officials “deliberately delayed action” by raising various objections during their regular sessions in May.

This forced Provincial Administrator Nery Duremdes to prepare detailed explanations on Cadiao’s supplemental budget request.

In its regular session on June 3, the eight members boycotted the meeting, preventing a quorum and thus halting any official action on the budget.

The Ombudsman said the accused SP officials did not provide written counter-arguments but relied on oral objections to the budget, particularly the allocations for installing solar systems in hospitals, homes, and streetlights, totaling P765 million.

The funds were sourced from 80 percent of Antique’s share of proceeds from energy developments, as mandated by the Local Government Code of 1991.

In its regular session on June 10, the eight officials, who constitute the majority of the provincial board, deleted the budgetary allocations.

This action was taken in the absence of the Department of Energy’s opinion that “the fund generated from the 80 percent of the national wealth tax shall, in no case, be used by any local government unit for any purpose other than those for which it was intended, which is to lower the cost of electricity in the local government unit where the source of energy is located.”

The deletion of the budget items reduced the province’s share from the proceeds derived from the development of hydrothermal, geothermal, and other sources of energy to less than 80 percent to lower the cost of electricity.

The decision also cut the funds meant for reducing electricity costs and denied 200 barangays and 15,000 households access to solar systems.Top of Form

The provincial board has 14 members and it needs at least 8 members (except the presiding head) to form a quorum.