Story by VINCE JACOB A. VISAYA/Manila Times News Correspondent and Luzonwide News Correspondent Publishing Editor
NAGTIPUNAN, Quirino-Almost a thousand of villagers in Nagtipunan town on Wednesday waved placards of support and chanted justice for Mayor Nieverose Camma-Meneses, who is facing a ten-month-and-fifteen-day suspension on alleged oppression, abuse of authority and graft.
Meneses called the suspension as “unlawful” and an “act of persecution” in a press conference at the Landingan view point. She said the act is “invalid and desperate” for promulgating the assailed decision “without substantial proof and glaring lack of jurisdiction.”
She added that the provincial board “has no substantive jurisdiction to determine (my) culpability on criminal cases.”
“The provincial board, as a quasi-judicial body, cannot act beyond its mandate. Jurisdiction is conferred by law. It cannot be presumed,” she said.
Tourism Officer Loyd Lozado Toloy has complained to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for his alleged financial dislocation and constructive dismissal when he was reassigned twice in a year, the latest was at the far-flung Diadian Cave.
However, the mayor Meneses said she invoked her right to a “presumption of regularity and good faith in the exercise of lawful prerogative” in reassigning Toloy to the Diadian cave because of an exigency of the service.
Toloy earlier complained to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan owing to his alleged financial dislocation and constructive dismissal.#
