Suspended Dalaguete mayor goes full blast on the campaign trail

DALAGUETE Mayor Ronald Allan Cesante began serving his nine-month suspension last Friday, but he just shrugged it off, as it gave him more time to focus on his campaign for reelection.

“Of course I’ll be campaigning. I am seeking reelection,” Cesante told Cebu Daily News in a text message yesterday, when asked what he planned to do while on suspension.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) last Thursday confirmed his suspension ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly taking advantage of his position when he occupied stalls in the town’s public market that was built by the municipal government out of an P18-million loan. The Ombudsman penalized Cesante  for “material and financial interests in transactions that required approval from his office.”

Last Friday, the first day of his suspension, Cesante met with village chiefs in his town for a “pulong-pulong” (consultation).

Cesante (Liberal Party) is being challenged by Dalaguete’s former municipal engineer Ildebrando Almagro (One Cebu) who was also the one who filed the complaint against him.

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered Cesante suspended for nine months on Nov. 15, 2015.  The DILG in Central Visayas received the order on Dec. 17, 2015, but it was only implemented last Thursday.

Vice Mayor Jeffrey Belciña, Cesante’s running mate and also with LP, has assumed as acting mayor last Friday.

Cesante said he has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) before the Court of Appeals and another motion urging the Office of the Ombudsman to act on his motion for reconsideration that he filed in December last year.

Cesante was a municipal councilor from 1988 to 1992 and vice mayor for two terms from 1995 to 1998. He ran and won as mayor in 1998 and went on to serve three full terms until 2007. He ran for vice mayor in 2007 and again for mayor in 2010. When he sought another mayoral term in 2013, Cesante ran under the Garcia-led One Cebu. It was only last year that he defected to LP.

Lawyer Rene Burdeos, DILG Central Visayas director, said that should Cesante win in the coming polls, he would still have to serve his suspension in full, which would have to be carried over to his next term. “Unless the Court or the Ombudsman issues respective decisions favorable to him, he will have to serve his suspension for nine months,” he told CDN.

The case against Cesante stemmed from the P18-million loan taken out by the municipal government of Dalaguete from the Land Bank of the Philippines for a public market where Cesante has allegedly  acquired four stalls managed by his wife, Joanna.

Almagro alleged that Cesante occupied the stalls in 2004 without a contract for several years and that the mayor drafted the contract of lease for the stalls only five days before his term ended in 2007. Had the mayor been paying, it would have amounted to a monthly rental of P7,000 and spaces worth P250,000 each, Almagro claimed.