WHEN Lapu-Lapu City Hall employees are perceived to be opposed to the administration, it’s allegedly not unusual for them to be assigned to the remote islands.

The latest “victims” are the mother and aunt of opposition City Councilor Junard Chan.

Erlinda Quirante Chan, 58, an administrative aide III assigned at the vice mayor’s office, was first assigned in Olango Island together with five others perceived to be against Mayor Arturo Radaza.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

When her son Councilor Chan asked for additional documents on the Mactan North Reclamation Project, the elder Chan was again reassigned, this time to Caubian Island, which is nearer to Bohol than to the mainland Mactan Island.

“Nitulo ang ako luha kay ako man ang iyang gigukod (I cried because it was obviously their way of getting revenge),” said Erlinda.

Whose idea?

Vice Mayor Mario Amores admitted recommending Chan to the mayor when the Caubian Barangay Council asked for personnel to be assigned in their island.

Amores signed Erlinda’s reassignment, but she and her son Junard believe it was the mayor’s handiwork.

Sun.Star Cebu called up Mayor Radaza’s home to get a reaction from him, but was told he went out yesterday.

The vice mayor, however, said it is part of government service to be assigned to offices where one is needed.

He said it was wrong to conclude that her reassignment was in retaliation for her son’s opposition to the reclamation project.

Erlinda joined the Lapu-Lapu City Government in 1993 and was assigned at City Hall in Barangay Pusok.

But when her son Junard started asking questions at the City Council and, in effect, joined the opposition, she was thrice reassigned to remote islands.

Move

On Feb. 6, 2009, she was assigned to Olango Island’s mini-hospital. To get there, one takes a 20-minute boat ride from Barangay Mactan to Sto. Rosa, followed by a five-minute tricycle ride.

Then on April 1, 2009, Chan and a few others were reassigned to Olango Island’s mini-City Hall, some 100 meters from the hospital.

Effective July 1, Erlinda was assigned to another barangay, Caubian Island, east-northeast of Mactan Island. There is no regular ferry service to the island. To get there, one has to rent a pumpboat for P1,000 or hitch a ride with fishermen going back to the island after selling their catch in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City.

Councilor Chan recalled that during a special session last June 26 on the Mactan North Reclamation Project, he asked for additional information, like a locational plan and supporting documents.

After he voted against the project that day, his mother Erlinda was assigned to Caubian.

Erlinda suffers from diabetes and filed for a leave of absence from July 1 to 3. She extended her leave to July 10, in view of an operation to treat her infected left foot.

Asked why he recommended a sickly employee for a far-flung assignment, Amores said that when one is in the government service, one is assumed to be fit to work.

“Kon tan-aw nimo nga di na madaa (If you think you can no longer bear it), then you can think twice about your employment at City Hall,” he said.