30,000 rally behind Vicencio

With some 30,000 individuals affixing their signatures, Malabon residents rallied behind suspended Malabon City Mayor Amado "Boy" Vicencio, urging the appellate court in a petition to act with dispatch on the case filed against him by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) last year.

"We, (Malabon), residents, leaders and members of different sectors are calling on the honorable magistrates of the Court of Appeals (CA) to immediately issue a resolution on the long pending case (grave abuse of authority) against Mayor Amado "Boy" Vicencio," the group said in a two-page letter addressed to the CA.

The case stemmed from the alleged anomalous purchase of a 12.5 hectare of idle fishpond intended to be a relocation site for displaced rail dwellers affected by the railway modernization being undertakem by the North Luzon Railway Corporation (NLRC), a government corporation. The petitioners claimed Vicencio only wanted to help the raildwellers in support of President Arroyo’s housing program for the poor.

"We believe that (Vicencio) has not done anything against the law particularly graft and corruption and abuse of authority," the petitioners said.

Last Nov. 24, 2003, in a hearing at the CA, the second division led by Justice Bonifacio Guerrero declared in open court that they will decide on the case before Christmas. They charged that it has been over four months, but no decision has been made yet by the court. – Jerry Botial