Councilor wants same set of rules to probe officials

Councilor Gerardo Carillo files proposal covering rules for investigation

A CEBU City councilor wants the City Council to adopt uniform rules in conducting administrative investigation against elective barangay officials.

The move is an offshoot of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas’ denial of the request of Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella to allow the council to inhibit itself from conducting investigation in order to prevent perceptions of bias and partiality.

During the legislative body’s regular session yesterday, Councilor Gerardo Carillo filed a proposed ordinance covering the rules for the conduct of investigation.

It states that no pre- liminary investigation will be conducted by the council within 90 days prior to any local election.

It also provides that no preventive suspension on any barangay officials will be imposed within 90 days prior to polls.

“If the preventive suspension has been imposed prior to the 90-day period immediately preceding a local election, it shall be deemed automatically lifted upon the start of aforesaid period,” states the proposed ordinance.

As for the duration of any preventive suspension imposed on a barangay of- ficial, the proposed measure provides it shall not extend beyond 60 days.

In the event, however, that there are several administrative filed against the barangay official, he or she cannot be suspended for more than 90 days.

Further, preventive suspension may be imposed on the official by the mayor upon a resolution by the council when the evidence of guilt is strong.

The resolution of the council will be based on the recommendation of the investigating authority.

To investigate the barangay officials for administrative cases is the council’s committee of three. Its members will be the councilors from the same district where the barangay official belongs.

The ordinance also states that an official maybe disciplined, reprimanded, suspended or removed from office for disloyalty to the country, culpable violation of the constitution, dishonesty, oppression, misconduct in office or dereliction of duty and abuse of authority, among others.

The council will conduct a public hearing about Carillo’s ordinance in the coming weeks.