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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The dismissal order against Vice Mayor Romel Yogore of Valladolid, Negros Occidental will be served as soon as possible, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The Office of the Ombudsman found Yogore and seven other municipal government officials guilty of grave misconduct.
DILG central office already ordered that the dismissal order against Yogore be served, said Region 6 director Anthony Nuyda, also the concurrent Negros Island Region DILG chief.
But Nuyda cannot say for certain if the same order contained the names of the other dismissed Valladolid officials.
Earlier Yogore told Panay News he planned to seek a temporary restraining order (TRO) against his dismissal before the Court of Appeals.
No TRO has been issued as of press time. The vice mayor was not replying to further queries.
DILG-Negros Occidental director Ma. Joy Maredith Madayag is supposed to serve the order since Yogore is a vice mayor, said Nuyda.
But Madayag is currently in Cebu and will return on Friday yet. Whoever is the officer-in-charge of DILG-Negros Occidental will have to serve the dismissal order on her behalf, Nuyda explained.
Also ordered dismissed were Municipal Agriculture Officer Giovanni Robles and Bids and Awards Committee members Joseph Alfonso Manayon, Ernesto Genobis, Daisy Galve, Cherryl Aguirre, Merlene Magbanua, and Ramonito Amazona.
The case stemmed from the alleged awarding of a P649,140 contract for the repair of two mechanical grain dryers without public bidding and the purchase of P300,000 palay seeds without authority from the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) when Yogore was still mayor.
Yogore and Robles argued that public bidding was no longer necessary since Franmar Agro Industrial Sales was the sole authorized distributor of Chung Ching grain dryers and that the disbursements for the purchase of palay seeds was provided for under SB Resolution No. 81, series of 2008.
Aguirre, Manayon and Galve contended that the complaint against them had no factual and legal bases and was grounded on mere conjectures. Amazona, Genobis and Magbanua did not file counter-affidavits.
If dismissal can no longer be enforced due to a respondent’s separation from government service, the penalty shall be converted into a fine equivalent to the respondent’s one-year salary, stated the order signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales dated Jan. 3.
The amount is payable to the Ombudsman and may be deducted from the respondent’s retirement benefits, accrued leave credits or any receivable from their office, the order stated./PN
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