10 mayors face raps for failing to clear roads

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has started the year by filing administrative charges against 10 local chief executives from the provinces who failed to comply with President Duterte’s order to rid roads of obstructions.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said yesterday cases for gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against the town mayors of Baco in Oriental Mindoro, Pili in Camarines Sur, Ginatilan in Cebu, Pagsanghan in Samar, Aurora and Lapuyan in Zamboanga del Sur, Sagay and Guinsiliban in Camiguin, Manticao in Misamis Oriental and Caraga in Davao Oriental.

The complaints were filed after the mayors failed to give satisfactory answers to show cause orders from the DILG, when they registered the lowest validation scores during their evaluation and monitoring.

“This is just the first batch of cases to be filed and we will file the succeeding batches as soon as our lawyers have finished reviewing the validation reports and the corresponding answers by the mayors,” he said in a statement.

The interior chief said the filing of cases was long overdue as all local government units (LGUs) were given sufficient time to implement Duterte’s directive to reclaim public roads from private users but the mayors showed negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of cooperation.

“These first batch of mayors failed to perform their duty to clear their roads of obstructions, they did not develop or implement any displacement program or plan, they do not have any long-term rehabilitation and sustainability plan in place, and they failed to set up a feedback or grievance mechanism for their constituents,” Año said.

Año urged the Ombudsman to act on the complaint with urgency and suspend the local chief executives, as the DILG prepares for a new round of street clearing operations, this time for 75 days.

DILG spokesman Jonathan Malaya said they have to revive clearing operations after noticing some LGUs’ inaction on the return of obstructions during the holidays.

“We hope that all our mayors understand that this is now a policy of the government until the end of this administration. They will have to lead and do their responsibilities, otherwise they will face charges and the threat of suspension,” he said.