Tupas won't serve suspension order yet

By Leny G. Gabo

No not yet.

Iloilo Governor Niel D. Tupas Sr. said he will not yet serve the suspension order against three officials of Igbaras town.

Mayor Esmeralda

The governor said yesterday that he will have to wait for the decision of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro on the motion for reconsideration which Igbaras Mayor Jaime Esmeralda, his private secretary Pio Elumba and treasurer Cynthia Cabañero filed earlier.

In the wake of the filing of their motion for reconsideration, Esmeralda said that they would welcome whatever decision the Ombudsman would take.

“In the meantime, I will just have to wait for the order of the Ombudsman,” Tupas said.

The Ombudsman issued an order dated March 21, 2005 preventively suspending the three officials for six months without pay in connection with the administrative complaint filed by Graft Watch and signed by Msgr. Meliton Oso.

The complaint, in turn, stemmed from the expose of Igbaras Councilor Vicente Escorpion regarding the P1 million rehabilitation project at Barangays Kinagdan-Mulangan road, which are alleged to be ghost projects.

Senate President Franklin Drilon funded the project.

Escorpion alleged that the project was never really implemented, contrary to what appears in the record.

Graft Watch questioned what appears to be the unlawful participation of Elumba and Cabañero, who acted as the project engineer.

Oso has expressed delight at the action of the Ombudsman on their complaint, and said that they will continue to be on the lookout for violations of the country's Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in order to trim down corruption.