‘Tan has enough leave credits’

BACOLOD City Councilor Ricardo Tan has enough leave credits and he can avail it anytime, the secretary of the City Council said.

Lawyer Vicente Petierre III, secretary of the City Council, said Tan filed another leave on Tuesday, February 26, so he might, again, not be present in the regular session on Wednesday, February 27.

Petierre said the councilor’s sick leave application was submitted by his staff at Bacolod Government Center.

“Under the Civil Service Commission, all the civil servants, which include the city councilor, are entitled of 15 days vacation leave and 15 days sick leave every year,” he added.

Tan has not been attending the regular session of the City Council since a week after he was ambushed, along with his wife in Barangay Alangilan last December 4.

The couple was unharmed but their car was riddled with bullets.

Petierre said Tan has enough leave credits including a special leave this year.

“It is his right to file a leave,” he said.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran earlier said that the City Council has no grounds to complain about Tan’s leave of absence from the regular session.

Familiaran said Tan has not contacted them since he was on leave. It was just his staff who are filing his leave of absence at the City Coucil.

It can be recalled that Tan was earlier identified by President Rodrigo Duterte as a high-value target who ranked fourth in his watchlist.

The President made the announcement in his speech at a birthday party he attended in Bacolod City on January 12.

Also, the councilor was previously implicated in illegal drugs but he denied such allegations. (MAP)