REINSTATEMENT OF CAPITOL EXECS
The Capitol’s administration is coming up with ways to avoid job redundancy in the executive department after the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered the reinstatement of five officials to their jobs.
On Monday, Assistant Provincial Legal Officer Marino Martinquilla, former Provincial Health Office (PHO) Chief Cristina Giango, Assistant Provincial General Services Officer Bernard Calderon, and Assistant Provincial Engineer Eulogio Pelayre reported back to the Capitol 22 months after the Office of the Ombudsman ordered them to be dismissed from public service for Grave Misconduct and Gross Neglect of Duty in 2015 with regard to the administrative complaint filed against them.
The complaint was linked to the procurement of alleged overpriced materials needed for the construction of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
The four officials and former Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre were members of the Bids and Awards Committee back then.
But in a decision rendered last July 31, 2017, the CA downgraded their offense to simple misconduct and from dismissal of public service, they were meted with a three-month suspension which took effect in December 2015.
While the reinstatement of the others meant no significant changes in their respective department’s organizational structure, the same thing cannot be said in the PHO wherein Dr. Rene Catan currently sits as its chief.
However, Lawyer Mark Tolentino, Provincial Administrator, told reporters in a press interview yesterday that they have scheduled a dialogue with Catan and Giango to sort things out.
But in the meantime, Catan remains as PHO chief.
Meanwhile, Tolentino said that Salubre, who was also ordered to be reinstated from his job did not make any request to be reinstated at the Capitol and did not report for work on Monday.
In addition, the CA also ordered the Capitol to grant them back wages and all benefits from the time they were dismissed from service, “commencing from the time that they have served the aforestated three-month suspension up to the time of their actual reinstatement.”