Utility worker files graft raps, seeks Ombudsman, CSC help vs 'Super Mayor'
The highest-ranking official of the Pavia Municipal Government faces criminal and administrative raps filed by one of the lowest-ranking longtime employees here.
Lodged before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), complainant is Roberto Hudiera of Barangay Tigom, Pavia, Iloilo.
Aided by counsel, lawyer Licerio Panes of the Panes, Panes and Edama Law Office, Hudiera charged Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta for acts he deemed to have constituted "oppression if not persecution."
Claiming undue injury, a violation of Republic Act (RA) 3019 otherwise known as Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, redress was sought before the Ombudsman.
Claiming oppression, intervention and corresponding action was sought before the CSC.
In a three-paged Affidavit, Hudieras decried what he said were the seemingly "take it or leave it" stance of Gorriceta.
"Take it or leave it" that is, on a new assignment Hudieras believed was arbitrary and without due regard to his medical and physical condition.
Hudieras began his employ with the Pavia Municipal Government in 1986 as utility worker/grass cutter. In 1998, armed men barged into the Hudieras household where he was shot in the ensuing attack.
Post-surgery, Hudieras went back to his job and was eventually reassigned to the Office of the Municipal Treasurer where he remains to serve up to present.
"However on September 18, 2008 I was surprised to receive a copy of the Memorandum Order numbered 2008-20 issued by Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta assigning me in the garbage collection truck that daily collects trash and garbage in the town proper and adjoining barangays of the municipality," excerpts of the affidavit obtained by The News Today (TNT) went.
Hudieras believed that the mayor's decision was prompted by ill-will and politically-motivated, "because he knows for a fact that it was then congressman and now TESDA Secretary-General Augusto Boboy Syjuco (with whom he is now at odds with) who spent for some of my medical expenses in 1998 after I was shot and my medical maintenance then until at present."
"As a government employee, I am apolitical and I would accept any help coming from any public official but Mayor Gorriceta ignored that and instead perceived me as "Syjuco sympathizer" and for that he must persecute and oppress me," Hudieras lamented.
Hudieras executed the affidavit in support of the relief sought before the Ombudsman, the government's anti-graft body and the CSC. Relief from purported acts which the beleaguered utility worker said were all perpetuated by Gorriceta, the "Super Mayor."