Mayor, legal officer to abide by Ombud’s order

BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said they will abide by the order of the Ombudsman relative to the dismissal of the six employees of the City Government.

The six were ordered dismissed for administrative cases filed against them during the time of former mayor Joy Valdez.

Leonardia said that, although they wanted to follow the order of the Ombudsman, they still had legal issues to be cleared first.

“This is administrative in nature and, in the case of former mayor Valdez who is no longer in public office, the case has become moot and academic under the Aguinaldo doctrine,” he said.

“I just want it clear because there are some sectors that are twisting it to make it appear that these cases are a Pandora’s box for Bing Leonardia. I have absolutely nothing to do with this,” the mayor said.

“This does not involve my administration. These cases were filed and happened during the previous administration and I am leaving this to the concerned employees to fend for themselves. We will just help in any way we can within the bounds of law and we would like to declare that we will follow whatever the Ombudsman would like to tell us,” he said.

Leonardia clarified that they have not received the official order of the Ombudsman yet.

“Once we receive it, we will comply. But it has to be the official communication,” he said.

Bayatan also said his office has not received the order yet.

“We will look into the matter. Our emphasis here is to obey the Ombudsman. There might be a question on what is this issue of the pending motion for reconsideration where there was no implementation of the order yet. It’s a matter of the question of law. We don’t challenge the authority of the Ombudsman,” he said. (CNC)