Gungob sues Capitol official for impeding town project

CEBU, Philippines - After Governor Gwen Garcia directed provincial lawyer Marino Martinquilla to file charges against Consolacion Mayor Avelino Gungob for allegedly operating a quarrying business without a permit, Gungob instead beat them to the punch and filed a complaint against Capitol officials and police officers.

Accompanied by municipal administrator Jerson Marano, Gungob filed a formal complaint at the office of the Ombudsman Visayas yesterday afternoon against provincial treasurer Roy Salubre and police and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology officers.

Aside from Salubre, included in the complaint filed by Gungob were PO3 Fernando Cabico, PO2s Juan Joromo and Fernando Almendarez, PO1 Zenon Vergas and BJMP personnel Romeo Manansala and Mark Along.

Also included were Hilario dela Peña, Azmir Garcia and Julius Colinares, all personnel of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office.

Gungob filed a complaint against Salubre and the others for conduct unbecoming of a public official, harassment, violation of the Rules of Engagement, Oppression and Misconduct in Office and Grave Abuse of Authority.

In his complaint, Gungob said that on November 11, 2009 around 2 p.m., he went to barangay Danglag to oversee the Mountain Highway project operations of the municipal government.

Gungob said when he arrived he saw Salubre with policemen and personnel from BJMP and PENRO apprehending the government dump trucks hauling the excavated earth materials from the project for dumping to the Government Center Project of the municipal government.

Gungob said Salubre reported that they apprehended the trucks because they have no permits issued by the provincial government.

The mayor said he told Salubre this undertaking is a government project with an Environmental Compliance Certificate and that the area where the filling materials will be dumped at the Government Center, is also covered by an ECC.

Gungob said that they did not expect the province of Cebu to issue a Gratuitous Permit to them anymore as they have been filing for such a permit since 2004 to no avail, allegedly over “political reasons”.

“That the presence of the four heavily armed PNP personnel (in full battle gear) and two BJMP personnel without proper coordination with the local police station and the Office of the Mayor, is highly questionable as it clearly violates the rules of engagement, more particularly, that when he (Gungob) asked for their individual IDs, they refused to show their personal identification cards to him,” Gungob’s affidavit read.

Gungob said he was willing to set aside what happened but when Capitol threatened to sue him, he decided to also act against them. – Jose P. Sollano/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)