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[av_heading heading=’ Caluya mayor seeks reversal of suspension ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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CALUYA, Antique – Mayor Genevive Lim-Reyes of this municipality has contested the six-month suspension meted on her by the Office of the Ombudsman for supposedly ordering a clearing operation on a five-hectare coconut farmland to pave way for a housing project that would relocate residents of Sitio Sabang to Sitio Poocan, Barangay Tinogboc.
In her motion for consideration, the mayor labeled as “figments of her imagination” the administrative case filed by one Juliet Ramos, assigning errors in fact and in law to the resolution signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, finding her administratively guilty of oppression “for destruction of complainant’s coconut trees” in February 2014 without the approval of the Sangguniang Bayan or authorization from the Philippine Coconut Authority.
The anti-graft body had cited the Local Government Code of 1991 which promotes a policy of “consultation prior to the implementation of certain projects consistent with the spirit of due process.”
Mayor Reyes disagreed with the Ombudsman’s finding that “the destruction of complainant’s coconut trees was established by substantial evidence.” How could that be when complainant had no property thereat?
The mayor stressed that the property cited – Cadastral Lot No. 912 under Tax Declaration No. 019-0048 – is owned by the local government of Caluya, which had bought it from the heirs of spouses Antiquio and Liwayway Monson Janairo.
“Nary a picture or any form of evidence were ever presented by complainant to prove the very existence of even a single coconut tree alluded to,” Reyes wrote in her motion for reconsideration, “much less the purported 245 coconut trees in her complaint-affidavit.”
Other than lone complainant Juliet Ramos, no other person corroborated her allegation that she had planted coconut trees in the area. The mayor could not understand her motive for opposing the housing project.
Although she made no mention of “political motive” in her motion, the mayor’s sympathizers (names withheld) told Panay News that somebody wanted to destroy her because she was running for re-election in 2016. She ran and won, nevertheless.
The local government, the mayor added, had not even taken part in the clearing operation. It was the personnel of the Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) which had done it as sponsor of the municipality’s housing project for the local residents – pampered with amenities such as a basketball court, a plaza and an elementary school.
Even on the assumption that complainant had planted coconuts, the same ought not have been construed as an irregularity in violation of Republic Act No. 6713. Under Presidential Proclamation No. 649 signed by President Manuel Luis Quezon way back in 1940, Caluya and its island barangays constitute a coal-mining reserve under exclusive control of the Department of Energy, which eventually franchised SMPC to mine the area for coal. Agrarian laws do not apply to mining areas.
Mayor Genevive Reyes – represented by counsel Voltaire Gumban – moved for reversal of the resolution finding her to have oppressed Juliet Ramos in her motion for reconsideration./PN
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