Calls mount for gov’t to implement Gov. Reyes’ suspension
Residents of Marinduque, led by the members of the Marinduque Reform Movement (MRM), assailed yesterday the alleged continued defiance by Gov. Carmencita O. Reyes of her 60-day suspension ordered by the Sandiganbayan last October 8.
In a press statement, the MRM said that “in blatant defiance of the Sandiganbyan’s lawful order, Gov. Reyes had continued to discharge the functions of her office and, in what clearly was a display of bad faith, if not disregard of simple delicadeza, signed for the province on Oct. 20, 2015 a loan agreement with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for 300 million.”
“As the governor during the period of her suspension is without authority to represent the province in its transaction, the loan is without legal effect. She cannot feign ignorance of the issuance of the suspension order and its implications,” the MRM said.
Reyes was ordered suspended for 60 days by the Sandiganbayan for graft and corruption in connection with the alleged misuse of her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in the 2004 fertilizer scam.
In a resolution written by Associate Justice Teresita Diaz Baldoz of the Sandiganbayan’s second division, Reyes was ordered suspended pending the trial of her case.
“The authority of the court to order the preventive suspension of an incumbent public official has both legal and jurisprudential support,” the resolution stated.
With the ruling, the Sandiganbayan directed the Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento to implement the suspension order.
Immediately after the release of Reyes’ suspension order, the MRM had asked Ombudsman Conchita CarpioMorales to stop the signing last October 20 of the 300-million loan agreement between the DBP and the provincial government of Marinduque.
MRM president Eliseo Obligacion said that Reyes cannot sign the agreement because she was suspended on Oct. 8, 2015 by the Sandiganbayan in Criminal Case Nos. SB-11-CRM-0100 and SB-11-CRM-0113 entitled “People vs. Carmencita Reyes.”