Toledo councilor, sister axed

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has found a barangay captain and a councilman of Bunga, Toledo City guilty of grave misconduct for violating the three-term limit rule stated in the Constitution and the Local Government Code.

Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente has ordered the dismissal from the service of Barangay Captain Edgardo Aguilar, president of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils, and his sister, Councilwoman Emma Aguilar-Arias. Aguilar sits as ex-officio member of the Toledo City Council.

The anti-graft body also ordered the forfeiture of benefits and perpetual disqualification from holding public office against the Aguilar and Arias.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Elvira Benlot and Samuel Cuico against Aguilar, Arias, councilman Leonardo Oralde, and councilwoman Emiliana Mancao.

The complaint pertains to respondents’ act of resigning from their respective position just a day after they took their oath of office on December 1, 2010.

Arias resigned as barangay captain while Oralde and Mancao also resigned as council members paving the way for Aguilar, the third-in-rank councilman to succeed as barangay captain and eventually elected as ABC president on December 7, 2010.

On January 1, 2011, Oralde and Mancao were appointed as councilmen.

Aguilar had already served as barangay captain for three consecutive terms prior to the October 25, 2010 barangay elections, hence, already barred by the three-term limit rule under the law.

“Their singular respective acts were clearly designed to put back Aguilar at the helm of barangay governance through a scheme they carefully hatched in clear circumvention of law, conferring in effect, an unwarranted benefit to Aguilar, who willingly accepted the position despite his knowledge of its legal infirmity,” read the order.

The anti-graft body earlier dismissed the case against Aguilar, Arias and Oralde due to the application of the Aguinaldo Doctrine following their re-election to their respective position while the office also claimed no jurisdiction over Mancao who was no longer holding public office.

In their motion for reconsideration, complainants assailed the dismissal by maintaining that the Aguinaldo Doctrine cannot be applied in the case of Arias and Aguilar because they were not re-elected to the same position,

Arias was elected as barangay captain in 2010 and as councilwoman in the 2013 elections; Aguilar was elected councilman in 2010 and as barangay captain in the 2013 elections.

As for Oralde, complainants also maintained that said doctrine could not be applied to him because even if he was reelected as councilman in 2013, he resigned in 2010 but was appointed later to the same position by former mayor Aurelio Espinosa.

The anti-graft body reversed itself and sustained the arguments of the complainants that Arias and Aguilar could not benefit from the Doctrine of Condonation because they have not been re-elected to the same position.  (FREEMAN)