GUADIZ SUES BARAAN

Lim won’t be spared

A NEW scandal has rocked the city government of Dagupan just as the local election is just around the corner, and this time, the complainant is no less than a close ally of Mayor Benjamin Lim.

Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III, who is reportedly seeking a high post at the Department of Transportation and Communication, has filed a complaint before the Ombudsman against City Administrator Rafael Baraan for alleged abuse of authority.

Guadiz said that only Baraan was named in his complaint but he will not be surprised at all if in the course of the investigation by the Ombudsman, Mayor Benjamin Lim would be included.

Guadiz has accused Baraan of abuse of authority for the alleged surreptitious appointment of emergency workers (EWs) to some 150 positions in the city government which have been unfilled for the past two years.

In an earlier letter to the Civil Service Commission, Guadiz called these appointments as “midnight appointments” and blamed solely Baraan for it.

Guadiz clarified that he filed the complaint before the Ombudsman because of the timing of the mass appointments, coming at a time when the election ban is now almost nearing.

There is only one reason for these appointments. The election is approaching. This is part of their electioneering,” Guadiz said in Pilipino.

He cited records that showed the office of the city mayor filling the vacant positions from among the qualified emergency workers in the city last March 15 just two weeks before the election ban.

According to Guadiz, members of the Dagupan City Employees Association asked for his help since the filling up of the vacant positions by the executive also affected them.

These appointments, Guadiz said, were inconsistent with the reorganization plan hatched by the Mayor’s Office in order to trim down the bloated city bureaucracy.

He pointed out that Lim, who is bent on running for congressman in the fourth district against Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., would not be spared since it is he who signs every appointment in the city.

Guadiz called all these appointments irregular because the personnel selection board chaired by Mayor Lim, was not consulted about these. One of the members in the board is a representative of the employees union.

Observers said not even the process required by civil service law, requiring the publication of the vacant positions in a newspaper of general circulation in the area was not observed.

Guadiz said at least 148 of the new permanent employees have been assigned to the Mayor’s Office and two to the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

He added it was ironic that the instant filling up of vacant positions by the executive department at a time when there is a reorganization bill now on second reading in the SP which was endorsed by the office of Mayor Lim and Baraan.

Specifically, Guadiz questioned why the EWs who were hired for only two months were given appointments ahead of EWs who were already in the service from seven to eight years.

Guadiz said he wrote Mayor Lim and Baraan to ask for the suspension of the appointments to permanent positions of the 150 EWs until after the election but to no avail.

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