DAGUPAN Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia was separately indicted by the Acting City Prosecutor for Dagupan City on the complaint filed by his fellow councilors for “Prohibition, Interruption and Dissolution of peaceful meeting defined and penalized under Article 131 of the Revised Penal Code”.

This was contained in a resolution signed on February 19, 2024 in Vigan City by Associate Provincial Prosecutor Maychelle Ablog-Sergio, who was designated as Acting City Prosecutor for Dagupan City per Regional Order No. 54 S. of 2023 by the Regional Prosecution Service in San Fernando City, La Union.

The complaint stemmed from an incident when Fernandez, Seen, Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, Councilors Dennis Canto, Marcelino Fernandez, and Joshua Bugayong, as well as Jennifer Liwag, the mayor’s executive assistant and her staff Alena Minette and Leth Clores, gathered for a private meeting in the City Mayor’s conference room located at the second floor of the Dagupan City hall on September 26, 2023.

In the complainants’ affidavit, it said that after the Sanggunian Panlungsod regular session approved three draft City Ordinances and Kua and the councilors were about to deliberate on issues for an upcoming press conference, Erfe-Mejia barged inside the conference room “and slammed the door shut… grabbed a plastic chair and slammed it violently into the floor, dragged another chair and sat on it . In display of his anger, he slightly raised the chair and slightly slammed it back down.”

Thereafter, he started shouting at complainant Fernandez.

When Seen asked him to leave. Respondent Erfe-Mejia turned his ire on Seen and instead of leaving, engaged him in another heated verbal encounter.

Erie-Mejia submitted his counter-affidavit on January 12, 2024 and the complainants submitted their joint reply on January 31, 2024. The respondent submitted his rejoinder-affidavit on February 16.

In his counter-affidavit, Erfe-Mejia claimed he entered the room calmly and had no intention of interrupting the meeting, if there was any.

The prosecutor held that the act of the respondent in barging himself to the meeting by force, threat and intimidation, and ultimately interrupted, prohibited and dissolved the peaceful meeting, constituted violation of Article 131 of the Revised Penal Code.

On the unjust vexation, the Prosecution clarified that since the acts constituting the offense are already embraced in the violation of Article 131 of the RPC, it cannot be separately charged.

In her resolution, Acting City Prosecutor for Dagupan City Ablog-Sergio ordered: “ Let the appropriate Information be filed in the court of proper jurisdiction.”

Councilor Irene Lim-Acosta’s motion for reconsideration was rejected soon after by the acting city prosecutor. (Leonardo Micua)

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