Minglanilla mayor suspends assessor for ‘neglect of duty’

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A municipal assessor in southern Cebu is in hot water for her alleged neglect of duty.

Minglanilla Mayor Rajiv Enad has imposed a 15-day preventive suspension without pay against the municipality’s assessor, Melanie Vargas.

The mayor questioned Vargas on why she allegedly was not able to assess properties according to the deadline given by the Cebu Provincial government.

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Explain in 5 days

“Mayor Enad is also asking Vargas to explain within five days the reason for the low percentage in the increase of real property values, and why she only inspected 10 establishments, even if Minglanilla has thousands of registered businesses,” the local government unit said in a statement sent to the media on Thursday afternoon, June 29, 2023.

To recall, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia issued Executive Order No. 37, series of 2022, on the reassessment of the values of properties. The Provincial Board also approved Resolution No. 1778-2022 and Ordinance No. 2022-06 on the matter.

CDN Digital tried to reach Vargas but she has not yet responded, as of this writing.

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Minglanilla mayor’s move backed

In the same statement, Enad’s decision is fully supported by the Minglanilla Municipal Council, which approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Enad to create task forces and conduct an investigation on the municipal assessor for gross neglect of duty.

“The Mayor, through an Executive Order, formed three new teams which started spreading out today to inspect establishments and speed up reassessment,” it said.

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Gwen calls on Minglanilla Task Force

Governor Garcia previously called upon the Task Force of Minglanilla after learning that, despite having a significant number of businesses and light industries within its boundaries, Minglanilla has practically the lowest increase among all local government units in Cebu in terms of the reassessment and reappraisal of valuation of real property improvements.

Not acceptable

Mayor Enad said that the result shocked him and that this was “not acceptable.” 

The mayor said he only learned about the matter from the meeting that was aired live on Facebook last June 26, 2023. 

“This is because, in their weekly department heads meeting every Monday, the assessor had said that they have complied with the mandates of the Provincial Government, and they submitted their reports on time. The assessor did not mention that they were only able to reassess and reappraise 10 establishments,” the statement further said.

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