Thursday, April 12, 2007 Cebu City ABC official’s bid assailed By Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE candidacy of Cebu City’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) administrative officer has raised questions on whether working for the office is considered government service.
It also revived the issues detractors have against her.
Tessa Paradiang Cang, whose roots are in Cabadiangan, Compostela, Cebu, is running for town councilor with the ticket of reelectionist Mayor Antonio Dangoy.
She is the first ABC employee to seek public office.
Under the Commission on Elections (Comelec) guidelines, a government employee is considered resigned upon filing his certificate of candidacy (COC). The deadline was last March 29.
But Cang, in an interview, said the Civil Service Commission has ruled that the ABC is not a public office.
And although their wages are paid using contributions from the different barangays, they are not considered government employees.
That is why their requests for service records and Government Service Insurance System membership were denied, she said.
Cooler heads
The same issue was first raised in Cebu City when former ABC engineer Leah Rondez filed a case against the ABC officials led by Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar.
The ABC denied Rondez her termination leave benefits after she was told that working in the ABC is not considered government service.
Also, Cang answered allegations against her on her role in the ABC.
In a radio dyAB interview, Cang denied being high-handed in dealing with village chiefs, saying majority of them have not complained against her.
She also said that only the upper floor of the ABC building at the South Road Properties has air-conditioning because funds for the lower floor were not yet available.
Although the air-conditioning units were delivered, they returned these to the supplier because the ABC could not pay for the units yet.
The City Government also donated an amount, but because of red tape, the ABC cannot get it only after a month or two.
Unsigned letter
An anonymous letter has been circulated, a copy of which reached the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) office, detailing Cang’s alleged excesses in the ABC.
After getting a copy from Cebu City DILG Director Patricio Gabuya, Cang told Sun.Star Cebu that the “poison letter” was malicious and unfounded.
She challenged those who wrote the letter to come out in the open and substantiate the allegations, which include the claim that the ABC is overstaffed so that some employees just sit idly inside the office and read newspapers.
Cang said the ABC has 55 employees, which she believes is enough because their total wages do not go beyond the allocation.
She acknowledged, though, that the issues surfaced because of politics. She suspects it was directed at Faelnar, who was initially believed to be among Bando Osmeńa-Pundok Kauswagan’s candidates for south district city councilors.
