Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Capitol denies Iturriaga's motion for recon By Jerome S. Galunan Jr.
THE Office of the Governor in the Province of Negros Occidental has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Dr. Vicente Iturriaga on the Capitol's dismissal order against him.
Iturriaga was dismissed from government service as medical specialist at the Teresita Jalandoni Memorial Provincial Hospital in Silay City dated September 28, 2007.
Gov. Joseph Maranon stood pat in his earlier decision of axing Iturriaga from the government service after he allegedly found the latter guilty of administrative cases filed against him by some of his patients.
But he told Iturriaga to bring the case in court if he's not contented of his decision against him.
Iturriaga, a medical specialist II at TJMPH, was accused of allegedly charging his patients some amount despite the fact that he's using government facilities and performing surgery during government hours.
The surgeon, however, denied the accusations and instead labeled them as plain and simple propaganda against him.
As to the recent denial of his motion for reconsideration, he said he wasn't surprised anymore.
"I'd already anticipated it. I don't expect any positive result because in the first place, I had already been pre-judged," he stressed.
And the Office of the Governor is not the right battleground for me to fight my case, he said.
"Even if I get the battery of lawyers, still I won't win in the Office of the Governor because I was already been pre-judged since day one of the case.
However, even if I have only an ordinary legal counsel, yet I am confident that I will win the case by sticking on the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers," Ituriaga said.
Nevertheless, he said, "I just want to follow the procedures of the law so that I won't fall into the technicalities later. It is up to my lawyers to handle the case now," he stressed.
Iturriaga is hoping that he will be vindicated soon in the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Thus he said after the governor denied his motion for reconsideration, the real "fight" starts - and that will be in court.
This, as he pointed out that the Office of the Governor has no jurisdiction to hear his case because it is legally and properly belonged to a committee based on Rule XI, Sec.5 of the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers (MCPHW).
Such provision states that, "Administrative charges against a public heath worker shall be heard by a committee composed of provincial health officer of the province, where a public health worker belongs, as chairperson, a representative of any existing national or provincial health worker's organization or in its absence its local counterpart and a supervisor of the office mentioned above. The committee shall submit its recommendation to the Secretary of Health or to the appropriate disciplining authority within in 30 from the termination of the investigation/hearings."
"Where the Provincial Health Officer is an interested party in the case, all the members of the committee shall be appointed by the Secretary of Health or the appropriate disciplining authority," the same provision further sates.
In contrast, however, an opposition/comment on the order was raised on October 18, 2007 by the prosecuting attorney that contended that the said "appropriate disciplining authority" as stated under Sec. 5 of the said provision, is still the Office of the Governor as it has the power to take cognizance of the action.
In addition the Administrative Code of 1987 also provides further legal basis on the exercise of authority of the Office of the Governor.
And based on Section 47, otherwise known as Disciplinary Jurisdiction that secretaries and heads of agencies and instrumentalities, provinces, cities and municipalities shall have the jurisdiction to investigate and decide matters involving disciplinary action against officers and employees under their jurisdiction.
But in Section 86 of the same provision known as "Administrative Investigation," it also states that the local government unit, an administrative investigation may be conducted by a person or a committee shall conduct hearing on the cases brought against appointive local officials and employees and submit their findings and recommendation to the local chief executive concerned within fifteen days from the conclusion of the hearing.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) through Undersecretary Wencelito Andanar issued a Memorandum Circular No. 2006-57 dated June 6, 2006, directing all provincial governors, vice-governors, city/municipal mayors, vice-mayors and DILG regional directors to fully implement the provisions of R. A. 7305 or the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers.
Said directive was coursed through the DILG regional directors, who issued a corresponding memorandum dated June 16, 2006, reiterating the same (full implementation of the law).
DILG said that the particular law has been in effect since April 17, 1992 under its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs).
But Andanar's circular that cited a study commissioned by the Department of Health that some provisions of the said law and various related issuances have not been fully implemented by some LGUs to the detriment and prejudice of the public health workers in particular, and to the delivery of health services in general.
