Two Mandaue barangay captains suspended for 2 months
Ombud issues preventive suspension so as not to hamper SAP irregularities probe against them
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Two barangay captains of Mandaue City have been suspended for two months by the Office of the Ombudsman.
These two village chiefs — Patricio Soco of Barangay Alang-Alang and Ignacio Cortes II of Barangay Centro — are accused of commiting anomalies in the distribution of the social amelioration program (SAP).
Kenneth Kilat, Department of Interior and Local Government in Mandaue City (DILG Mandaue City) director, confirmed the Ombudsman’s suspension order against the two barangay captains.
Kilat said that the two barangay captains were suspended preventively for 60 days or two months which would start today.
Read: 5 Cebu barangay execs, 4 others face preventive suspension over SAP anomalies
He said that the suspension order would be to prevent the respondent officials from halting the investigation against them.
“Investigation pa dili pa gyud judgement. Investigation is still going, in order for their office nga dili sila make influence sa resulta sa investigation, gi preventive suspension sila, ” Kilat said.
(There is an investigation and there is no judgement yet. The Investigation is still ongoing. In order for their office not to influence the result of the investigation, they are preventively suspended.)
Barangay Captain Cortes II, for his part, said that he was shocked to receive the order.
Cortes said that all the criminal charges filed in the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) against him were all dismissed.
“Na dismissed naman jud but you know as official naa man nay administrative ingun ana. I was waiting wala man jud ta kadawat og subpoena gikan sa Ombudsman o sa DILG, ” Cortes said.
(That has been dismissed, but you know as an official there is an administrative charge like this. I was waiting but I did not receive the subpoena from the Ombudsman or the DILG.)
He said that the allegations were not true and that they only enumerated the beneficiaries, and then these were forwarded to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for validation.
“Pagkuan anang DSWD nagkuha ko og enumerators para mo kuan sa guidelines sa DSWD after namo og enumerate based sa ilang guidelines among gisubmit, sila (DSWD) ang nivalidate, ” he said.
(After the DSWD got enumerators for the DSWD guidelines after we enumerated based on their guidelines, we submitted them, and they (DSWD) were the ones who validated.)
On the other hand, the CDN digital tried to contact Barangay Captain Soco of Barangay Alang-Alang to get his side but he could not be reached for comment.
As of now, the first councilors in the respective barangays have taken over as barangay captains.
They are Councilor Celso Pañares of Barangay Alang-Alang and Councilor Rodrigo Bering of Barangay Centro.
There are 89 barangay captains across the country that have been ordered preventively suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman following the filing of the complaints against them by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)./dbs
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