Shimura seeks dismissal of raps vs him, his mother

CEBU, Philippines – Daanbantayan Mayor Sun Shimura has asked the Cebu Provincial Board to dismiss the charges filed against him and his mother, Vice Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot, by two Capitol department heads over their alleged failure to implement projects.

In his verified answer with the Provincial Board, Shimura, represented by his counsel Delon Richel Ramon Urot, said the charges should be immediately dismissed for lack of merit and factual basis.

Provincial Board Member Joven Mondigo Jr., chairman of the committee on complaints and investigation, said that the provincial board, convening itself as a committee of the whole, would require both the complainants and respondents to submit their additional evidences or affidavits within 10 days upon the receipt until June 22.

Mondigo said they will discuss and finalize several issues concerning the case as the committee still has to wait for the ordinance to be signed by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia before it could start the preliminary conference on the case.

Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Marivic Garces and General Services Office officer-in-charge Bernard Calderon have filed complaints against the top officials of Daanbantayan for their alleged failure to implement Capitol-initiated programs.

Garces and Calderon alleged the municipal officials committed “gross negligence and dereliction of duty,” which is in violation of Section 60 of the Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code, for their failure to implement Capitol-initiated programs such as the Early Child Care and Development and Saksak food program and “un-maintained and un-repaired” military vehicle, respectively.

Since the committee needs to adopt specified procedural rules in looking into the complaints, the PB convened itself as a committee of the whole that will conduct an investigation into the charges.

The board needs to come up with specified rules to be adopted and incorporated to “compliment, supplement and enhance rules” of the provincial board House Rules.

But Shimura, in his reply, said the complaint of Garces has no factual and legal basis, citing Section 60 of the Local Government Code of 1991, which says he is not liable for alleged gross negligence and dereliction of duty.

"Proper dissemination and instructions were given by Mayor Shimura top his department heads and other concerned divisions as regards the implementation of several programs and projects of the provincial government," Shimura's reply reads.

Shimura argued that “as a matter of fact, at all times, the municipality of Daanbantayan, Cebu has always been fully supportive of the programs and projects of the provincial government, among others, supplemental feeding program.”

He added that Daanbantayan has not implemented the Saksak program because most of the town’s residents, particularly in the barangays, have already planted camotes in their backyard thus it would be hard to persuade them to buy camote.

"...common sentiment of the people and a known trait in the community that camote is never used for eating lunch or dinner. Besides, the people in Daanbantayan are not used to mixing camote with rice," Shimura said.

The mayor also denied they deliberately neglected a military jeep the Provincial Government donated to their municipality. He said their decision to return the police vehicle was merely to "unburden" the municipality from maintaining used military truck. He said said they even repaired the police jeep before they returned the military jeep.

"The municipality of Daanbantayan has in fact not been remiss of its obligation to its residents and will endeavor to fulfill its committment for upliftment of the lives of residents," said Shimura. – Garry B. Lao/WAB (THE FREEMAN)