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[av_heading heading=’Maasin mayor suspended ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO – The Sandiganbayan suspended Mayor Mariano Malones of Maasin town for alleged irregularities in the purchase of a garbage truck in 2001.
His 90-day suspension took effect on Thursday.
That day Malones himself went to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) regional office’s Legal Department to get his suspension order, said provincial office officer-in-charge Aurelio Ticorda.
Malones was accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The mayor was not immediately available for comment as of this writing.
Ticorda said Malones’ suspension was pendente lite, or “suspension pending litigation.”
It means it was “preventive” — to prevent the mayor from influencing the investigation on the case — he said.
The Sandiganbayan’s Third Division was hearing the graft complaint against Malones.
In a 10-page resolution dated June 7, 2016, Associate Justice Sarah Jane Fernandes dismissed Malones’ argument that a suspension would violate his right to be presumed innocent because it would be tantamount to a penalty.
A preventive suspension is a “measure of precaution so that the employee who is charged may be separated, for obvious reasons, from office,” Fernandes said.
Ticorda said the DILG regional office received the order last week and asked the provincial office to serve it.
“Kon waay si Mayor Malones nagkadto sa regional office, supposedly kami ma-[serve],” said Ticorda.
Winefredo Maternal and the Public Assistance and Corruption Office under the Office of the Ombudsman filed the complaint on March 12, 2012.
Municipal Treasurer Edna Madarico and a certain Marites Delos Reyes were also named in the complaint.
Aside from graft, they were also accused of falsifying public documents.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales signed a resolution on the charge in June 2014.
State prosecutors then asked the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division to suspend Malones.
Malones filed a motion for reconsideration, but the Sandiganbayan denied it./PN
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