Suspended Pangasinan mayor, vice mayor return to work

ASINGAN, Pangasinan, Philippines — The mayor and vice mayor of this town have reassumed their posts after serving their suspension for one year.

Mayor Heidee Chua and Vice Mayor Carlos Lopez Jr. led the flag-raising ceremony at the municipal hall yesterday.

“They need not secure... another order from the Office of the Ombudsman or the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)... as they have served their suspension stated in an earlier ombudsman decision,” Agnes de Leon, provincial local government operations officer, told The STAR yesterday.

“What they have to do is write a letter to concerned authorities that they are... reassuming their respective positions,” De Leon said.

Chua and Lopez’s suspension stemmed from a complaint filed by Councilor Evangeline Dorao, saying the officials put their names and photos in the ambulance acquired by the municipal government in 2016.

Dorao said she wrote a letter to Chua and Lopez reminding them of DILG Memorandum Circular 2010-101, which prohibits the placing of names, initials, images or pictures of government officials in billboards and signages on government projects and property. 

The officials removed their names and images on the ambulance, but they did not acknowledge the letter of the complainant or informed her that they heeded her request.

The action of the officials did not exonerate them from administrative liability, the ombudsman said.