Palace: Pichay has to follow suspension

Manila, Philippines - Malacañang maintained yesterday Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) board chairman Prospero Pichay Jr. would have no choice but to follow the suspension order of the Office of the Ombudsman as the Palace would enforce it should he fail to get a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the courts.

Speaking over radio dzBB, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Pichay should argue on the merits of the case instead of continuously crying that he was being subjected to political harassment.

Valte said allies of the former administration could not always use political harassment as defense for the cases filed against them.

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the six-month suspension of Pichay for allegedly allowing the investment of P870 million in LWUA funds in the Laguna-based Express Savings Bank Inc. or ESBI when it was already bleeding.

Pichay had said he would defy the order.

The Ombudsman issued a 10-page order directing Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to implement the six-month preventive suspension on the former Surigao del Sur congressman.

Malacañang has also placed three board members of LWUA – Bonifacio Mario Peña, Susana Dumlao Vargas and Renato Velasco – under 90-day preventive suspension for alleged misappropriation of funds to acquire the same troubled thrift bank.

Ochoa issued the suspension order on the LWUA trustees based on the complaint filed by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima with the Office of the President on April 6.

Valte said the Ombudsman was an independent office and that it was no secret that the Office of the President did not have a very harmonious relationship with the agency under former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

“I think it’s quite difficult to justify why they have the same answers. Maybe it’s better that instead of always saying it’s political harassment, let the merits of the case be their defense,” she said, adding that Pichay and the other LWUA officials could avail of the legal remedies but the suspension orders would have to be implemented.

“They can ask for a temporary restraining order from a higher court to restrain the Office of the Ombudsman from implementing the preventive suspension, then all agencies will follow the order from the court,” Valte said.