1 month ago
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CONCERNED residents here are asking why Mayor Julio Parayno III continues to hold office despite having been suspended by Malacañang last month.
Mayor Parayno and Vice Mayor Jimmy Parayno were suspended for 12 months after they were found administratively liable for grave misconduct and abuse of authority.
However, Mayor Parayno has defied the order, arguing that he did not receive it on Jan. 7 because he was on leave at the time.
"There must be something wrong [with him]. To actually disobey the agency that we report to say [something] of a person. These are laws that we must follow and respect," Gov. Ramon Guico III told reporters on Monday.
Guico dismissed the mayor's claim that the suspension order was not served.
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"How can you dispute that? You should challenge that in the proper forum. You should not be the one saying that it was not served. Who are you to say that?" Guico said.
Last week, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) reaffirmed that the suspension order against Mayor Parayno and Vice Mayor Parayno was properly served on Jan. 7.
In a letter to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), DILG Regional Director Jonathan Paul Leusen Jr. said that Malacañang's suspension order dated Jan. 3, 2025 was implemented on Jan. 7 through substituted service.
He said that when they served the suspension order that day, the Paraynos were not in their offices at the city hall here.
An employee in the Office of the Mayor refused to receive the order, claiming she was not authorized to receive it.
"Hence, the authorized officer of implementing agency resorted to substituted service by posting the said notice and copy of the decision at the [entrance] door of the offices of the City Mayor and Vice Mayor," Leusen said.
Last Jan. 13, during a flag-raising ceremony which he attended after his supposed leave, Mayor Parayno dared the DILG to serve the suspension order to him, saying he will be waiting for them.
He said that he can no longer be suspended because the election period had already begun on Jan. 12 and suspending a public official was among the prohibited acts, unless it had prior approval from the Comelec.
But last Feb. 4, the Paraynos again once evaded DILG officials and policemen led by Leusen, who had traveled to this city to tell the Paraynos to step down and to install the top 2 councilors as acting mayor and acting vice mayor.
On Feb. 7, the Comelec said that since the penalty of suspension has already been implemented prior to the election period or before Jan. 12, 2025, prior approval is no longer required in the implementation of the suspension order.
"Well, [Mayor Parayno] should be thinking of his situation because he's already defying the government, the DILG and the Office of the President," Guico said.
"So, you know, it's the government that's telling you that you are suspended. And you believe otherwise. It's as if you have your own government that's telling you that you are not suspended," Guico added.
The DILG earlier warned that all actions, declarations, orders or pronouncements made by the Paraynos "are bereft of legal effect, and persistent reliance upon them amounts to usurpation of functions."
The DILG also cautioned Councilor Franco Paolo del Prado, the highest-ranking Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) member, and Councilor Warren Andrada, the second-highest SP member, may be charged criminally or administratively if they continue to refuse to assume office as acting mayor and vice mayor.
