Governor's suspension politically motivated?

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan yesterday branded as “politically motivated” the Ombudsman’s having suspended him without pay for six months due to alleged mishandling of a P27 million calamity assistance package for his province.

An apparently irked Sacdalan, who is to run for a second term in next year’s gubernatorial race in the province, accused his political rivals of instigating the accusations to pin him down.

“Politically motivated,” Sacdalan told Catholic station dxND in Kidapawan City yesterday, asserting that his adversaries just want to derail his bid for a second term.

Sacdalan was cited by the Ombudsman, after an extensive investigaton, for grave misconduct and dishonesty in which his alleged acts were seen to be ‘dishonest and imbued with intent to circumvent if not violate the law.’

The suspension came in the midst of Sacdalan’s declaration last Tuesday he would be running for re-election in next year’s elections under the administration’s Lakas-Kampi ruling party.

According to the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said order, dated Nov. 4 and signed by Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro was received by the DILG legal office Nov. 9 and is expected to be served this week.

Sacdalan’s suspension shall reportedly be effective immediately as soon as he would be in receipt of the order to be served by DILG officials.

Machine copies of the order were circulated to different radio stations in Central Mindanao yesterday by cause-oriented groups and non-government organizations involved in peace advocacy projects meant to promote good governance in Moro communities in the South.

He said he has not received any copy yet of the Ombudsman’s order.

Playing politics

The case against the governor stemmed from a complaint filed by a former district engineer of North Cotabato, Milagros Casis, and corroborated by two former members of the internal audit team of the province and a barangay chairman.

Casis accused Sacdalan of pocketing about P16 million from North Cotabato’s 2008 calamity fund amounting to P27 million.  

Sacdalan’s most bitter political adversary, North Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, dismissed as “whimsical” insinuations by Sacdalan and his staffers that he is behind the building of the graft case against the governor.

“I’m not the one that complained to the Ombudsman. It’s unfair to insinuate, thus, that the Ombudsman is ‘playing politics’ whenever it acts on graft cases based on its findings and evidence at hand,” Piñol said.

Sacdalan and Piñol were strong political allies for nine years, or for three consecutive terms as vice governor and governor of North Cotabato, respectively, from 2001 to 2007.

It was in fact their political ties that Piñol ran for vice governor of the province in 2007, as running mate of Sacdalan. Their political relations started turning sour last year due to irreconcilable differences.