CEBU South Bus Terminal (CSBT) administrator Vicente Dejoras Jr. was ordered to temporarily stop reporting to the terminal while he awaits reassignment.
Gov. Hilario Davide III placed Dejoras under preventive suspension from July 22 to 31 after he reportedly manhandled a bus dispatcher.
The committee on discipline and investigation is investigating the matter.
On July 19, 20-year-old Glen Marc Alpuerto told Sun.Star Cebu that Dejoras punched him several times in the stomach while he was inside the administrator’s office.
Alpuerto said he was just buying a cellphone load when Dejoras picked him up.
Dejoras had banned dispatching at the terminal and also imposed a schedule when vendors could set up their stalls near the terminal’s entrance.
Excuse
Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino had told the governor about the “punching” incident.
Davide summoned Dejoras to the governor’s office and asked him about the incident.
“He punched the dispatcher inside his office. We know that and for me that’s not right,” the governor said in Cebuano.
In a separate interview, Dejoras said Alpuerto had been apprehended several times for
dispatching inside the terminal.
“He was rude at that time when I talked to him that was why I punched him,” Dejoras said.
Dejoras currently reports to the governor’s office.
The CSBT’s officer-in-charge is Restituto Dosdos del Rosario Jr., consultant on CSBT and Larsian operation.
“I told Mr. Dejoras sakto ma na nga idisiplina nimo sila, kanang imong i-manhandle (it is right to discipline them but if you manhandle them) that’s not part of your job,” Davide said.
The governor said they have yet to decide where to re-assign Dejoras.
Provincial Information Officer Ethel Natera said Dejoras is a co-terminus employee and was just tasked to manage the CSBT.
Turned down
Dejoras had wanted the governor to let him remain in the terminal until December since he still has projects he wants to implement, but Davide reportedly would not allow him.
“I’m a good soldier. Kung unsa gusto ni Guv (Whatever the governor wants), I just want to follow,” he said.
Dejoras did not want to say where he wants to be assigned.
The Cebu City Government had passed Ordinance 2108 that prohibits the dispatching of passengers for public utility vehicles.
The lack of enforcement, though, means the practice is rampant in areas like the CSBT, which, Dejoras had said, had prompted him to take the law into its own hands.
The ordinance defines dispatching as an act of procuring, soliciting or escorting passengers or would-be passengers to any passenger vehicles whether such act is done under the direction of the driver or operators and done with or without collecting or demanding fees.