DILG intervenes in Panglao mayoral row

PANGLAO, Bohol – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has stepped into the row between two people claiming the mayorship of the town.

Tension surfaced last Monday during weekly flag ceremony at the municipal hall when Mayor Leonila Montero and the sitting mayor, Pedro Fuertes, both showed up.

Later in the day DILG Provincial Director Johnjoan Mende served a memorandum to Montero and a copy of it to Fuertes. The memorandum was signed by DILG Regional Director Leocadio Trovela.

The sitting vice mayor, Briccio Velasco, also received a copy of the memorandum.

Mende said Panglao cannot have two mayors, and recognized Fuertes as mayor.

In the memorandum, DILG said Montero’s move to reassume her position was premature and that she must continue to serve the penalty of dismissal imposed by the Ombudsman in its order dated last January 19.

Fuertes, who was vice mayor, took over as mayor.

Last June 28, the Court of Appeals ruled that Montero could return to her post. But motion for reconsideration was filed by a certain Augustin Cloribel.

Aside from the Court of Appeals decision, Montero is also invoking Section 46 of the Local Government Code to defend her return as mayor.

Montero was not in her office on the ground floor of the town hall when Mende arrived to serve the memorandum. Montero’s municipal administrator Alejandro Arbutante was the one who talked to Mende.