DILG still to implement Ombud’s dismissal and suspension orders against 2 mayors

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) had yet to implement the dismissal order meted by the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman against Aloguinsan Mayor Augustus Moreno and the suspension order of Ramonito Durano III, Danao City Mayor.

Provincial Director Jerome Gonzales of the DILG said that his office had not yet received any directives for the implementation of the dismissal order against Moreno and the three-month suspension order against Durano III.

Moreno was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman after he was found guilty together with his wife, Cynthia, and several municipal employees of grave over the purchase of on several occasions from a bakeshop owned by the mayor’s wife in 2010.

Durano, on the other hand, was found by the Ombudsman to be guilty of simple neglect of duty for failing to release benefits of employees whose appointments he earlier revoked but later reinstated in 2013.

Durano’s lawyer Edmund Lao, however, earlier said that the mayor was contesting the Ombudsman’s decision and had filed a motion for reconsideration after they received the order last Jan. 25.

Gonzales said that before the order would be implemented, it would have to follow protocol where the Ombudsman would be the one to decide whether it would be the DILG that would implement the Ombudsman’s order.

He said they would first forward this to the office of the DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno before this would be cascaded down the line.

Gonzales said that it would also be up to DILG 7 Director Rene Burdeos to decide on which office that would implement it.

“Bale I’m taking orders from the regional director, and, right now, there are no orders yet,” he said.

However, Gonzales clarified that there are also instances that the Ombudsman would opt to forego the DILG and instead order a higher-ranking elective official to implement it.

“(It is an)Option of the Ombudsman kung kinsa ilang sugoon (on who the office would direct to implement the order), ” he said.

“There are cases na ang immediate superior ang sugoon (that it would be the immediate superior who would be tasked to implement it). Pareha anang kapitan, there were cases na ang mayor ang sugoon (Like in the case of barangay captains, there were cases that the mayor was the one tasked to implement the order),” he said.

At present, Gonzales said that his office will just wait for the directive from the higher office.