Thursday, May 01, 2008 Cebu City resident sues Compostela councilor
A FORMER Barangay councilor from Camputhaw has asked the anti-graft office to look into the appointment of an elected official from Compostela, Cebu to the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) of Cebu City, citing alleged violations.
In a letter to Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol, Rodnie Ray Tumulak, who ran but lost to Barangay Captain Lorenzo Basamot last May, believes that the designation of Compostela Municipal Councilor Tessa Cang as administrative officer of the Cebu City ABC defies provisions of the Constitution, the Administrative Code of 1987 and the Local Government Code.
He alleged that it may also be in defiance of the provisions of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), enshrined in Presidential Decree 807, and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials as imposed by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Administrative
He asked why the Cebu City ABC had to hire a non-city resident, and a municipal councilor at that, for an administrative officer.
“Did the Cebu City barangays, with its vast manpower resources find nobody in Cebu City to qualify as an ABC administrative officer?” Tumulak asked.
But Cang, in an interview last night, said the Civil Service Commission has already resolved the question.
She said the agency issued a resolution last Dec. 4, 2006 and said the ABC is not considered a government agency.
As such, she maintained, the work she renders there isn’t government service.
With that, there is no conflict between the functions she discharges at the Compostela Municipal Council and work she performs with the Cebu City ABC.
Moreover, she explained that she got appointed to the Cebu City ABC in 2002 yet, as part of the team of then ABC chief Eugenio “Jing-jing” Faelnar.
This, she maintained, was five years before she ran, and won, as councilor of Compostela.
Similarly, the Commission on Elections didn’t raise any question when she submitted her certificate of candidacy. This was further proof, she maintained, that no conflict existed between her two jobs.
Cang hinted that envy motivated the request to have her investigated.
“If there ever was a pill to cure envy, I would have bought it long ago and gave it to people,” she said in Bisaya. (KNR)
