Hold departure order issued against Isabela city mayor

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – A hold departure order has been issued against an Isabela city mayor in connection with the nepotism case filed against her before the Sandiganbayan. 

Reports said that Santiago City Mayor Amelita Navarro, who was formally charged for nepotism last month, has been on the Bureau of Immigration’s hold order list after the anti-graft court ordered the mayor’s temporary ban from leaving the country.

The hold departure order on Navarro has been flashed on local radio and television the other day following the Sandiganbayan’s order of her arraignment on Sept. 23 in connection with the nepotism case filed against her by the Office of the Ombudsman. 

Navarro has been contacted by media since Thursday but to no avail. Her mobile phone was not answering calls or text messages. 

Navarro’s headache stemmed from having her husband, Dr. Jose Navarro, also a former Isabela board member, appointed as one of the board of directors to the city’s Santiago City Water District (Sanwad) in 2005.

The Ombudsman, through Assistant Special Prosecutor III Leni Bajo-Padaca, said that Navarro’s appointment of her husband constituted nepotism, which is a violation of the law wherein a government official is prohibited to appoint or assign a relative to the government, or in government-owned and controlled corporations like the Sanwad. 

The arraignment of Navarro before the Sandiganbayan’s third division on Sept. 23 came as an offshoot of the Ombudsman’s denial of the mayor’s motion for reconsideration and supplementary motion on July 12. 

In its 13-page resolution, the Ombudsman, in filing the nepotism case, said that preliminary evidence showed that Navarro had committed acts of nepotism when she had her husband sit on the Sanwad board of directors representing the medical sector. 

Councilwoman Lydia Makiling of the city’s Dubinan East village had filed the nepotism case in 2005, claiming that Navarro’s appointment of her husband was tantamount to nepotism.