‘Immoral’ Altavas mayor suspended

MANILA – Mayor Denny Refol of Altavas, Aklan was slapped by the Office of the Ombudsman with a six-month suspension for disgraceful and immoral conduct.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales found Refol guilty of the administrative offense for fathering a child from another woman not his wife.

Disgraceful and immoral conduct, according to the Ombudsman, is “an act which violates the basic norm of decency, morality and decorum, abhorred and condemned by the society.”

Such conduct is also “willful, flagrant or shameless, and which shows a moral indifference to the opinions of the good and respectable members of the community,” the Ombudsman said.

A fact-finding investigation conducted by the Ombudsman

n rt – Visayas’ Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office found that the married Refol had an illicit affair with another woman with whom he had a child.

“Refol also acknowledged paternity in the certificate of live birth of the child who was born in 2007,” Morales said in the decision posted on the Ombudsman’s website on Monday.

“The relationship gained public knowledge in the municipality because respondent publicly displayed the same,” she said.

Refol said the complaint should be considered moot and academic since he already stopped seeing the woman referred to. Only a few public officials do not have mistresses, the mayor claimed.

“Refol’s administrative liability should push through because the respondent has not denied the relationship despite the subsistence of his marriage or the fact that he has fathered a child with the woman,” said Morales.

Morales directed Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary Ismael Sueno to immediately implement the suspension order against Refols./