EX-SIBONGA MAYOR ORDERED SUSPENDED
FORMER Sibonga mayor and now councilor Lionel Bacaltos will be facing suspension for six months after the Court of Appeals (CA) reversed the anti-graft office’s decision clearing him of liability for failure to act on the application for business permit of his former political rival.
In a decision issued in February, the CA 18th Division said Bacaltos was found guilty of grave abuse of discretion and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service for not acting on the application for business permit of former Sibonga mayor Nestor Ponce.
Ponce is currently the village chief of Barangay Poblacion in Sibonga, Cebu.
Bacaltos, in a separate interview, said he will appeal the decision.
Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor lawyer Jerome Brillantes said the suspension order cannot be enforced for now as there is currently an election ban on suspending elective officials.
Ponce, who owns a prawn farm business in Barangays Simala and Bagacay in the same town, filed a complaint against Bacaltos in 2015 after his business permit application was not acted upon.
He said that aside from not acting on his application, Bacaltos also made him submit additional requirements that were irrelevant and not required by law, under the threat of business closure.
In its 12-page decision, the CA stated that Bacaltos committed grave abuse of authority through his continued refusal to act upon Ponce’s application despite receipt of the required documents.
SunStar Cebu was able to secure a copy of the decision from Ponce’s lawyer Alan Siu.
This was not the first time Ponce had experienced difficulty applying for a business permit during Bacaltos’s time as mayor.
In 2008, Ponce filed a petition for mandamus against Bacaltos after the latter refused to approve the business permit for his prawn farm.
Though the Regional Trial Court in Argao, Cebu favored Bacaltos over Ponce in its decision in 2009, the CA reversed the lower court’s decision and ordered Bacaltos to act within 30 days on Ponce’s application covering the year 2008.
But Ponce claimed that even with the CA’s decision, Bacaltos reportedly continued to exhibit unwillingness in acting on his business permit application.
In 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas ordered Ponce and Bacaltos to submit their respective position papers.
But in October of the same year, the Ombudsman issued a joint resolution, dismissing the administrative charges filed against Bacaltos for lack of substantial evidence.