KALIBO, Aklan – Gov. Florencio Miraflores denied the accusations stated in a complaint filed against him and 16 other local officials in Aklan over Boracay’s environmental problems.
The governor was accused of negligence in ensuring the island resort’s sustainability.
Miraflores said he will prove his innocence before the Office of the Ombudsman, where Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) undersecretary Epimaco Densing III lodged the administrative and graft charges on June 27.
“We will answer the charges in proper time. I am confident the Ombudsman will afford us the opportunity to answer the accusations. It will undergo fair trial and due process,” Miraflores said in a radio interview last Thursday.
He added that “they have to blame somebody for the Boracay environmental issues…They think the Boracay closure would be ‘dramatic’ if local officials will be charged before the Ombudsman.”
Aside from the governor, the other respondents of the case were Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Valentin Talabero, Vice Mayor Abram Sualog, Sangguniang Bayan members Natalie Cawaling-Paderes, Jupiyer Gallenero, Floribar Bautista, Lloyd Maming, Dalidig Sumandad, Maylynn Aguirre-Graf, Danilo Delos Santos, and Dante Pagsuguiron, Licensing Officer III Jen Salsona, Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer Edgardo Sancho, and barangay officials Hector Casidsid, Chona Gabay and Lilibeth Sacapaño.
Densing accused the officials of issuing establishments permits to operate despite them not securing fire safety inspection certificates.
The DILG also sought the preventive suspension of all the respondents pending investigation, citing Section 24 of Republic Act 6770, or the Ombudsman Act of 1989.
According to Miraflores, the complaint was “rushed.”
“Ang complaint ay minadali, but I am sure the Ombudsman will look into the basis placing the local officials under preventive suspension,” the governor said. “Hindi ko makita na automatically ma-suspend ang mga respondents, tulad ni Talabero na four months lang nag-assume sa PENRO-Aklan.”
Talabero on Friday said he will file countercharges against Densing.
As head of PENRO-Aklan, Talabero said he is under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), not the provincial government, thus not covered by the mandate of the Local Government Code of 1991.
“The totally erroneous, baseless and irregular inclusion of PENRO as respondent has brought damaged to his name, career and family, and maligned his reputation as a person,” DENR lawyer Wilma Lagance said. (With a report from Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
