Ex-councilor: Case vs Emano ‘for public’s safety’

A FORMER Cagayan de Oro City councilor who filed an administrative case against Mayor Vicente Emano along with other members of Save CDO Now Movement openly criticized the mayor’s contention that their motive is plainly to suspend or disqualify him from seeking re-election in the 2013 polls.

Celestino Ocio III said the case is not about his suspension but rather, “it is the safety of the entire city and its people.”

“It is about humanity, itself being violated and endangered. It is not about him being suspended. That’s the delusion of his self-centered imagination,” Ocio said.

Ocio, along with other complainants Dr. Vincent Tero, Raul Ramon Roa, Teodulfo Lao and Enrico Salcedo, accused Emano of negligence and dereliction of duty for defiance of the orders of agencies which, according to them, resulted in the “unparalleled number of deaths and destruction” brought by Typhoon Sendong in December 2011.

The investigating officer of the case, who filed at the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), has forgone its formal investigation during the clarificatory hearing held Monday at the DILG’s regional office in Cagayan de Oro.

Lawyer Rannie Palisoc, DILG’s investigating officer, ordered both parties to submit memoranda on their arguments and evidences.

Earlier, Emano said the complainants are out to suspend him from office. His legal counsel, Francis Ku, said his client is politically persecuted, having investigated right after Secretary Mar Roxas assumed office as the newly appointed DILG chief.

Roxas is the president of Liberal Party, while Emano is under Padayon Pilipino.