Aurora mayor, vice mayor defy suspension order

DINALUNGAN, Aurora — Tension reigns in this sleepy town as its mayor and vice mayor continue to defy the suspension order which Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo slapped on them late last month on charges of gross misconduct and grave abuse of authority.

Additional policemen have been deployed here to prevent confrontation between the followers of embattled Mayor Marilyn Marquez and Vice Mayor Virgie Callejo and the supporters of acting Mayor Harvey Tubera.

Superintendent Teodoro Saclolo, provincial police director, sent 60 policemen last week to secure the municipal compound to avert violence between the camps of Marquez and Vallejo, who are still occupying their respective offices, and Tubera, who holds office at the session hall.

Saclolo said they tightened security at the compound because the New People’s Army (NPA) might exploit the situation to sow terror.

"We will just limit the number of people in the town hall and those without official business have to go out," he said.

Angara-Castillo said both Marquez and Callejo continue to hang on to their posts even after the Department of the Interior and Local Governments (DILG) served their 60-day preventive suspension last July 28.

The suspension order stemmed from charges of gross misconduct and grave abuse of authority filed against them with the Sangguniang Panlalawigan by an employee of a logging company operating in the town.

"She (Marquez) is bent on defying my order. Let us see how far she can go," she said.

Angara-Castillo said it is up to the DILG, together with the Philippine National Police, to implement the order.

"If she (Marquez) decides not to follow it, she can be sued for usurpation of authority by the DILG or by Tubera," she added.

If the provincial board found the two officials administratively liable, she said they can be suspended for six months.

Angara-Castillo said she would not interpret Marquez’s defiance of her order as an affront on her authority as governor.

"I don’t want to ascribe any personal motivation on her part for doing it," she said.

She said the preventive suspension order is not a penalty, but a measure to prevent her from influencing witnesses and tampering with the records in the ongoing investigation of the provincial board.

But Vice Gov. Annabel Tangson, who presides over the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, has a mouthful against the two officials who, she said, have been snubbing the summonses issued to them.

She recalled that last Aug. 9, they set a hearing for the two officials, but they did not appear and instead went to a radio station and criticized the board for recommending their preventive suspension.

"They (Marquez and Vallejo) have practically converted the town hall into their own house. Ano bang meron doon na ayaw nilang umalis (What is in there that they don’t want to leave)?" she said.

The suspension order arose from an administrative complaint filed against them by Fermin Lozano, trucking supervisor of Industries Development Corp. (IDC), for alleged unlawful collection of road user’s fees.

The municipal council earlier passed an ordinance imposing a road user’s fee ranging from P50 to P100 for each vehicle passing through the town.

Medel Chua, district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), said only the national government could collect road user’s fees and that the municipal ordinance constitutes double taxation.

In a six-page complaint, Lozano accused Marquez and Callejo of deliberately closing the national road traversing this town to traffic by placing "Do Not Enter" signs and diverting all vehicles to the municipal roads.

Lozano said this inconvenienced vehicles passing through the town and the adjoining municipalities of Casiguran and Dilasag, and Palanan and Dinapigue, both in Isabela.

Bus companies and motorists going to the northern towns have protested the ordinance, with a local transport group even threatening to go on strike.

The provincial board subsequently unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the 60-day preventive suspension of Marquez and Callejo to Angara-Castillo.

According to the board, evidence against them is strong and that they would likely influence witnesses and pose a threat to the safety and integrity of the records and other pieces of evidence if they are not preventively suspended.

In a joint affidavit, Marquez and Vallejo said the municipal ordinance has been in effect since last year and that the fees collected would fund the maintenance of municipal roads.