THE ending days of May proved to be very memorable to the whole officialdom of the province and also to its entire populace.
Almost seventy (70) elected and non-elected provincial and local officials of the province were suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman!
Led by no less than Governor Erico Aristotle C Aumentado, they were temporarily ordered not to perform their respective duties for SIX MONTHS on charges of Grave Misconduct , Gross Neglect of Duty and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service.
One (1) Municipal Mayor was also indicted from the First Congressional District of the province, two Municipal Mayors (2) from the Second Congressional District, and five (5) town executives from the Third Congressional District.
The rest are either barangay captains in the province of Bohol or Bohol provincial and regional officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The case is relative to the construction, operation, and expansion of Captain’s Peak Resort in Canmano, Sagbayan, Bohol.
This establishment is nestled in the middle of the iconic Chocolate Hills National Monument (CHNM) – a declared protected area in Bohol.
Accordingly, “this Resort was allegedly constructed, operated, and further developed without the required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) and Special Use Agreement in Protected Areas (SAPA) from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Natural Resources.”
“Too, the Resort was issued with Mayor’s business, building and locational permits for the year 2020-2024 despite its repeated failure to secure the a forecited permits and clearance from the DENR.”
With those alleged infractions, issuance of a Preventive Suspension Order IMMEDIATELY followed against these “erring” elected and non-elected officials.
The suspended personalities were never informed nor duly subjected to an investigation before the Suspension Order was issued. More than majority of the suspended officials were asking themselves after receipt of the Order, “Why me and not these person?”.
And, these reactions were not limited to the concerned themselves. Learned Boholanos were also one in saying, “Wa-a pa ikiha, unya gisuspender na? Unsa may gibasehan sa SUSPENSION?”
Is providing a copy of the complaint and a succeeding investigation not a requisite before suspending a respondent after proof of guilt is strong?
Affirmatively, Short Cuts strongly believes in this. He learns of this before he passed the Bar Examinations.
By experience, Short Cuts can also share his “a never-forgotten history in his political life.”
As a newly-installed Vice-Governor in 2016, he, together with the other Members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, were charged before the Office of the Ombudsman of a case that happened when he (Short Cuts) was still a Provincial Board Member.
All of us, RESPONDENTS, were individually furnished copies of the complaint as a basis for our answer.
But in the present case, the SAME Office of the Ombudsman issued an AUTOMATIC SUSPENSION ORDER without any copy of the complaint being issued to the respondents.
Respondents were NEVER provided with a copy of the complaint!
W H Y, W H Y? and W H Y?
Were the previous rules of the Office of the Ombudsman, as in 2016, totally different from what it is now? Short Cuts honestly believes that ONLY the Office of the Ombudsman can provide the real, true, and correct answer.
