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| Gov. Ayong Maliksi |
The
Department of Interior and Local Government has ordered
the reinstatement of Cavite Governor Erineo Maliksi.
Maliksi’s
return to the office came after the Office of the Ombudsman
dismissed for lack of merit administrative and criminal
charges filed against him.
The
Ombudsman, in its decision, ordered the DILG “to restore
public respondent Erineo Maliksi to his position as governor
of the Province of Cavite upon receipt of the said resolution.”
DILG
Secretary Rolando Puno said in the statement that Maliksi’s
reinstatement is “immediately final, executory and
unappealable,” citing the Ombudsman’s resolution
clearing Maliksi on four charges filed by Vice Governor
Juanito Victor Remulla over the supposedly illegal purchase
of some P7.5 million worth of rice in 2004.
Remulla
had questioned the purchase, claiming it was a “ghost
transaction,” had not gone through the bidding process,
gave “unwarranted benefits” to Capitol City
Marketing form which the rice was bought, and that the rice
had never been delivered.
But
in its 23-page resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman said:
“This Office believes and so holds that Sections 3
(e) and (g) of RA 3019 of the Anti-Graft Law were not transgressed
and that the complaints should be dismissed for want of
probable cause.”
It
added that the Cavite provincial government did not suffer
any undue injury from the purchase of the rice, noting that
the price at which the high grade local Sinandomeng variety
was bought — P1,000 per sack -- was lower than the
P1,200 market price at the time.
The
Ombudsman also pointed out that “the contention that
no rice deliveries were made…must fail” as proven
by various documents — including receipts of rice
delivery from different punong barangay [village heads]
— presented by Maliksi as evidence.
It
added that Maliksi “merely responded to the demand
for help from the Department of Social Welfare Department-Cavite,”
and that, based on the opinion of the provincial legal officer
“of the present crisis,” he decided to proceed
with the purchases.
Puno
has also ordered DILG director for the Calabarzon region,
Roberto Abejero, to inform Remulla, who became acting governor,
to hand back the governorship to Maliksi. (OPS/PIA)
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