LINGAYEN–Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr. has warned Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza against possible “grave abuse of authority” for rejecting the province’s program arming barangay chairmen (kapitans) with shotguns.

In a privilege speech Monday, Bince, co-chairman of the Committee on Good Governance, said the actions of Braganza, as well as Burgos Mayor Domingo Doctor Jr. who has also questioned the shotgun program, “speaks of their distrust of their own allies in the maintenance of peace and order”.

Braganza, in a text message to The PUNCH, declined to react on the pretext that he did not hear nor read Bince’s speech.

Doctor, on the other hand, clarified that he is not against the shotguns per se but that he wants guidelines instituted to regulate the use of the issued weapons.

Braganza, supported by a resolution passed by the City council, had ordered the kapitans in Alaminos not to accept the shotguns and to return any shotgun issued to them.

Bince said Braganza’s move to reject a program approved by the provincial board brings into focus the need to review the policies and relationships between the provincial government and the local government units.

“When Mayor Braganza publicly repudiated a duly approved program of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and the governor of the province both in print, radio and TV, is he liable for dereliction?,” Bince asked.

He said “it is high time perhaps to remind the mayors that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan reviews their ordinances, budgets and executive orders as well as exercises authority over them and other elective municipal officials for offenses provided under the Local Government Code.”

Bince also hinted that the outburst of Braganza could be politically motivated since the latter is being touted to run against Governor Amado Espino Jr. for the province’s top post in the 2010 election.

He described the city mayor’s fears of abuses by kapitans as “imagined and flimsy”.

Braganza, in a press conference, presented the mother of a nurse who was shot to death by barangay officials using a gun issued to them by 1st District Rep. Arturo Celeste.

The provincial board last year appropriated P30 milllion for the purchase of shotguns for all the barangay chairmen in the province except those from Dagupan City, which is a chartered city and therefore is not under the provincial government.#

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