Ermita village chief back after suspension

Rupinta

Ermita Barangay Chairman Felicisimo Rupinta will hold a press conference at the barangay hall at 11 a.m. today or one hour before his six-month preventive suspension officially ends.

“He submitted to us a letter informing our office that he will resume as punong barangay on July 31 at 1 pm,” said Emma Joyevelyn Calvo, Cebu City director of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

All barangay officials of Ermita served a six-month preventive suspension imposed by the DILG in response to a complaint by the regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7).

The PDEA-7 said the officials did not cooperate with them in a raid of a “shabu tiangge” (flea market) located 500 meters from the barangay hall last November 6, 2016.

Calvo said they enforced the suspension order against the barangay officials at noon last January 31.

Aside from Rupinta, also suspended were barangay councilmen Marky Rizaldy Miral, Antonieto Flores, Ryan Jay Rosas, Alio Tamundo, Domingo Ando, Maria Buanghag, and Wilbert Flores.

In an order dated January 16, Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente temporarily stripped the barangay officials of their power until the administrative adjudication of the case was not completed.

During the past six months, no official caretaker was appointed by the Office of the President to act as officer-in-charge of the barangay.

However, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña appointed lawyer Winefredo Orcullo Jr. as his representative in overseeing the situation of the barangay. Orcullo is the city’s markets administrator./Reporter Jose Santino S. Bunachita