Pasay City execs dismissed

Interior Undersecretary Brian Yamsuan disclosed yesterday that the Ombudsman ordered Friday the dismissal from government service of Pasay City Mayor Peewee Trinidad, Vice Mayor Antonio Calixto and 10 councilors for allegedly entering into an anomalous garbage contract.

Yamsuan said the dismissal order would be coursed through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the agency tasked to implement the order.

Last November,Trinidad and company were ordered suspended by Malacanang for the same reason.

Yamsuan said the DILG failed to serve the order on Friday because it was penned late Friday afternoon.

He said the dismissal order would be served to Trinidad and the other officials on Monday.

Asked if Yamsuan had seen a copy of the order, he said he only heard about it from an official from the Office of the Ombudsman.

"I haven’t seen a copy of the dismissal although I have been informed about it. From what I know, the lawyer of Mayor Trinidad has been furnished with the dismissal order," he added.

Councilor Allan Panaligan, who is now the acting mayor of Pasay, will replace Trinidad while Arvin Tolentino, also a councilor will act as the vice mayor.

Both Panaligan and Tolentino were not charged with graft because they did not sign the garbage deal.

Trinidad, Calixto, and 10 councilors were suspended over alleged anomalies in the garbage collection and disposal contracts. The suspension order was issued by the Office of the Ombudsman and also implemented by the interior department.

The preventive suspension order was issued even as the department was directed to conduct "further investigation" of the case.