Vicencio’s loyalists leave barricade, vow to return

Loyal supporters of suspended Malabon City Mayor Amado Vicencio abandoned their barricade in front of the city hall yesterday but vowed to return tomorrow for a bigger protest action.

This time they will try to prevent Vice Mayor Mark Allan Yambao from entering the city hall after he was sworn in Thursday night as acting city mayor by Metro Manila local government director Raffy Benaldo.

The DILG tried but failed for several times to serve the 60-day suspension order to Vicencio as the mayor’s supporters formed a human barricade to prevent them from entering the city hall. This prompted the DILG men, accompanied by Northern Police District director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., along with other local officials, to serve the suspension order Thursday afternoon at Vicencio’s residence.

Also gone were the buses and dumptrucks as well as stock-pile of old tires used in blocking the main streets leading to the city hall.

While its flag still flew half-mast, business activities surrounding the still shut down government building returned to normal yesterday. But traders in the area, claiming to be the sector most affected by the impasse, were bracing for more disorder.

"Before they departed Friday afternoon, Councilor Arnold Vicencio advised his father’s supporters to prepare for a bigger protest action on Monday," a trader, whose business establishment is situated just a spit away from the city hall, said.

His fellow traders affected by the five-day stand-off, also expressed apprehension that if the problem would drag on for several more days, it would make life even harder to Malabon City residents.

"People were deprived of basic services as the city hall was shut down while patients who were supposed to return for check-up at a clinic nearby failed to report to their doctors and those with emergency cases were made to climb the blockade set up by the mayor’s supporters," another trader said.

"We are hoping that they could settle their feud the soonest possible time," another one said. "Our respective trades also suffer," he added.

Malacañang ordered the DILG to implement a 60-day preventive suspension on Vicencio Monday over an administrative case filed against him by four opposition councilors.

The councilors alleged that Vicencio irregularly purchased a piece of land in Bgy. Tanza, Navotas. Vicencio, however, defied Malacañang’s order claiming technical flaw on the part of the DILG.