Palace blocks Isabela vice mayor’s suspension

By Raymund Catindig and Charlie Lagasca

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya  – For lack of documents, Malacañang has stopped a preventive suspension order issued by the Isabela provincial board against a town vice mayor who is an ally of President Aquino.

The Palace said Vice Mayor Fernando Cumigad of Gamu town would remain in his post until the provincial board submits documents showing grounds to suspend him.

Isabela Vice Gov. Antonio Albano said the provincial board would comply with Malacañang’s order and submit a copy of the complaint and documents showing grounds for Cumigad’s suspension.

“The suspension of Cumigad was only preventive in nature and not a penalty,” Albano said.

The order, dated Jan. 17 and signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, said the President would decide on the matter based on the documents to be submitted by the Isabela board.

The board ordered Cumigad suspended in November last year for alleged abuse of authority after he reportedly refused to return a government vehicle issued to him when he was the town mayor. 

Cumigad’s successor and political rival, Mayor Nestor Uy, filed the complaint before the board.

Uy reportedly asked Cumigad to turn the vehicle over to the local government after the elections in May 2013, but he allegedly refused.

The vehicle figured in a collision with an ABS-CBN crew cab in Nueva Vizcaya in August last year.

Cumigad is a member of the Liberal Party and identified with former Isabela governor and now Commission on Elections Commissioner Grace Padaca, while Uy is identified with the camp of Gov. Faustino Dy III and Albano, the board’s presiding officer. 

Cumigad, a three-term mayor, claimed his suspension was baseless as he described the board’s action as politically motivated. He appealed the case before the Office of the President.