Former barangay chiefs defend Del Rosario
ROXAS CITY – In defense of 1st District Rep. Antonio Del Rosario who is accused of having "ghost employees" and financial assistance anomalies when he was still the city mayor here, three former barangay captains have expressed their opinions that the solon could not be held liable for the alleged irregularities. They defended Del Rosario's function as chief executive saying it was merely ministerial in nature.
In a two-page document obtained by The News Today Capiz, the opinion was signed by Rudy Macato of Brgy. 9; Eduardo Dela Cruz of Inzo Arnaldo and Rene Barrios of Punta Tabuc, all are former village chiefs of their respective places.
According to them, Del Rosario was sincere, honest and never refused to help those who asked financial assistance from the city government. His office was always open to everybody.
The ex-village chiefs said that the blame to the controversy should not be pointed to Del Rosario for the following reasons:
Citing the case of Alejandro vs. Sandiganbayan, G.R. 81031, Feb. 20, 1989, adopted in COA Decision 1965, Jan. 18, 1991 (re: Sorsogon OIC-Governor Henry S. Fajardo), held "that the approving officer on a disbursement voucher who relied on the certification of his subordinates is not liable for any defect or irregularity in the transaction covered thereby as his act of approving the same was merely ministerial.
As city mayor, he cannot be faulted, as he has to sign and dispatch mountains of documents brought to his desk everyday, he can not be expected to personally scrutinize and verify the genuineness/veracity and completeness of every documents reaching his office thus, he has to rely on the competence of his responsible subordinates and on the legal presumption of regularity of the performance of their given duties and function, following the doctrine in Arias and Alejandro cases as reiterated in the case of People vs. Philip Ella Juico."
The same case happened to Del Rosario when he was still city mayor, the former chiefs opined.