Ad hoc body proposed to probe officials
A resolution was filed in the Sangguniang Panlungsod seeking the creation of an ad hoc blue ribbon committee to handle the open letter complaint of The PUNCH editor-publisher Ermin Garcia Jr. published in The PUNCH’s Sep. 22 issue against some officials of Dagupan City.
Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who proposed the measure, said this is necessary because the house rules of the present legislative body does not have a blue ribbon committee tasked to investigate complaints against officials and even employees of the city government.
Tamayo clarified that the investigation will only be for the purpose of legislative inquiry since the SP does not have administrative jurisdiction over elected officials except those in the barangay level.
Tamayo, a lawyer, explained that only the Office of the President has jurisdiction over elected officials at the local government level while the Office of the City Mayor has jurisdiction over appointed officials and employees.
The legislative inquiry, he said, will be conducted for the purpose of determining whether local laws need to be revised or new ones passed to improve the system.
“The ad hoc committee will just be for the purpose for which it was created and will lose its validity upon completion of the inquiry,” he said.
Tamayo said the draft resolution will be discussed by the SP on Monday and will simply need a majority vote to get approved and passed.
Garcia, however, said it is the duty of the city council, as the check-and-balance to the executive branch, to determine why local ordinances were not enforced, which responsible officials should be made to account for dereliction of duty, and to make the appropriate recommendations to the city mayor for the applicable sanctions.
In the complaint against Jose Mariano Cuña for failing to return the P16-M when he failed to transfer the title of the 30-hectare land in San Jacinto to the city, Garcia it is no different from SP’s latest move to demand the return of the P2-M mobilization fund from the contractor of the shelved hospital project.
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