Mayor defies Ombudsman

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper

Vicente Escorpion, lawyer and mayor of Igbaras, Iloilo, continues to defy orders from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Office of the Ombudsman to reinstate two employees.

We don’t know his reasons. The latest order came two weeks ago from Pelagio Apostol, Jr., Deputy Ombudsman – Visayas directing him to implement the order of the Ombudsman who had cleared municipal treasurer Cynthia M. Cabanero and accounting clerk Pio Elumba of any administrative liability.

Apostol, in brief, told Escorpion to reinstate the two who a scoundrel, the embalmed version of Mommy Dionisia kicked out of their jobs in August 2009, or three years ago.

Mommy Dionisia II retired in July and carted off a booty of more than P4 million lump sum from her leave credits alone. She got that much because throughout all 16 years that she worked in the Office of the Ombudsman, she incurred not a single absence nor tardiness. She never got sick in all those years and she never had a single encounter with traffic snarls.

In clearing the two in her decision May 2012, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, junked the conclusion of Mommy Dionisia II who merely parroted the findings of quack investigator Roderick Blazo, who in turn merely mimicked to the fault, especially the fault, the rantings of a pack of charlatans disguised as graft busters with whom Escorpion was closely linked with back in his years at the Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary at Jaro, Iloilo City.

To recall, the calvary of the two employees and then mayor Jaime Esmeralda, began in August 2004, after Escorpion, a councilor then, delivered a privileged speech accusing Esmeralda for pocketing P1 million intended to re-gravel more than six kilometers of roads.

Escorpion in his oral testimony before the Sandiganbayan admitted he did not personally inspect the site before his speech on July 2004. He went there only a month after his delivery. All throughout, he merely relied on “reliable sources”.

A lawyer that he is, he should have bolstered his credibility by capturing the sordid states of the two roads with a video cam or still camera that he never did.

One of his “reliable sources” was municipal engineer Anastacio Escobido who testified at the Sandiganbayan that he was “unaware” of the project implementation but admitted on three things: one, he did see bags of cement, filling materials, concrete culverts and steel bars to be installed as road drainage, two, he saw the roads last in January 2004 and later, in September 2004.

When cross-examined, he insisted that there were no delivery of any material whatsoever, and that what he saw of the road condition in September 2004 was exactly the same as in January 2004 because no rain nor storm passed Igbaras between January 2004 and September 2004.

He got rattled during the examination. He admitted he signed the inspection report in the company of a team from the COA. He fell to an amnesia in so short a time.  He signed the report on December 13, 2004, the same report carrying his answer to the COA team who queried him why the surface materials were unevenly spread.

He cried amnesia. The defense counsel confronted him with the COA report, he remembered having answered the COA that the nature of the roads was such that some portions needed no surface materials while others required more.

Anyway, any Igbarasnon will just be entertained by the municipal engineer who perorates without blinking that the mountain town was rainless from January through September 2004.

That bizarre weather was merely an echo of yet another bizarre TV report titled “1-Witness” of GMA’s Kara David who ranted that no storm hit Igbaras from April 2004 through September 2004.

Kara David’s report was aired sometime in May 2005, more than a year after the implementation of the regravelling project. It was uploaded in You Tube but later disappeared for some reasons.

She must have entertained even her bosses by her genius of quoting unnamed but “reliable sources” from PAG-ASA, the Philippines, weather bureau that no rain nor storm ever visited Igbaras from April 2004 through September 2004.

Defiance of the Ombudsman’s order is an administrative offense, a reminder to “panyero” Escorpion.