MISAMIS Oriental Board Member Dexter Yasay has questioned some memoranda issued by Vice Governor Jigjag Pelaez, saying they are "self-serving and biased."
Yasay, in his special report Monday, August 5, called out Pelaez for issuing the memoranda, particularly a memorandum directing all Provincial Board (PB) employees to secure prior authority and consent from him before attending any meetings or hearings within or outside the PB premises.
Yasay said the memorandum was only issued on July 29, only after a series of hearings was conducted from July 22, 23 and 36.
"Now you cannot sanction the employees for attending because the memo was only issued after the hearings were concluded. He doesn't want us to utilize our staff, dili lang pang-hassle for our part, it's sabotage," Yasay said.
Another memorandum Yasay questioned was the exemption of some employees, among them PB secretary Ernesto Sotto Jr., from biometrics to monitor their daily attendance.
Sotto did not have a daily time record since he was employed in the Provincial Government in 2013.
"It is clearly an abuse of authority, protecting someone when our mandate is only to serve the people of Misamis Oriental," he said.
Yasay thinks these memoranda is Pelaez's way to get back at the PB members for launching an investigation on the utilization of the budget of the PB for 2019.
"I think it's a retaliation sa ad hoc committee creation to investigation the budget of SP (Provincial Board), because we received reports that previously, the budget was spent extravagantly. But we need to review this because we need to prepare for another fiscal year," he said.
"I believe these memoranda were issued to hamper the performance of SP. In the proper time, we will refer this matter to proper institutions to sanction these kind of practices," Yasay added.