“LET the proper forum handle that. I hope they will be able to proceed judiciously."
This was what Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said on the case of the two suspended department heads of the Negros Occidental Provincial Government being investigated for separate administrative cases.
“I don’t want to discuss these cases. I think it would be unethical for me to discuss these cases that have been brought forward,” he added.
The governor admitted that he got both positive and negative feedback on the suspension of the rank and file employees.
“We have to do what we have to do. I would just limit to that. I don’t want to talk about the cases publicly,” he said.
Lacson ordered Monday, June 8 the 60-day preventive suspension of Provincial Budget Officer Jose Percival Salado Jr. and Mambukal Resort head Ellen Marie Jalandoni pending investigation of administrative charges against them.
Salado’s suspension is due to his alleged failure as a budget officer to carefully study and evaluate the creation of new positions by the province in its annual budget for fiscal years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019,
The oversight led to higher excess in the personal services (PS) cap allowance from P106,134,890.46 in 2015 to P595,224,524.03 in 2019 and leading to the disallowance of the said amount in 2019. It also led to the prohibition of the Province of Negros Occidental to provide additional PS items until such time that the PS cap is observed.
Jalandoni, on her part, was slapped with a 60-day suspension but for a different administrative charge.