Lipa City mayor appeals suspension order

LIPA CITY, Batangas – Mayor Meynardo Sabili filed a motion for review and applied for a temporary restraining order (TRO) before the Court of Appeals (CA) regarding his suspension as ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Sabili’s chief of staff, Bernadette Sabili on Tuesday said that while the suspension order has not been served to the local chief executive’s office by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), they are still pushing for a TRO.

Mayor Sabili and City Administrator Atty. Leo Latido were held administratively liable for oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service with a penalty of one year suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman last December 11, 2017.

The decision was approved by then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales on June 27, 2018.

The decision stemmed from the case filed by City Social Welfare Officer Teresita Pesa on September 10, 2015 over her illegal reassignments to different offices.

Sabili’s chief of staff said the Ombudsman might have not considered the appeal letter of Pesa withdrawing her complaint which was received by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon on February 3, 2017.

Pesa, in her letter, said her complaint was only a product of misunderstanding between her and the local chief executive.

“After my sober and soul searching assesment and analysis of my situation, I realized that Mayor Meynard Sabili’s act of reassigning me in the Office of the City Agriculturist is not an illegal act because it is a valid exercise of management prerogative and that the same was done in the exigency of service without diminution in rank, status and salary on my part” the appeal letter read.

Pesa has retired from government service two years ago.

She added in her letter that she has been receiving all the benefits entitled to a department head because of her reinstatement which was ordered by Mayor Sabili on November, 2015.