Abra prov’l board suspends Lagayan mayor, vice mayor

‘Dishonesty, grave misconduct over road anomaly’ 

By Freddie Lazaro

LAGAYAN, Abra -- The Abra Provincial Board has issued a six-month suspension order on Lagayan mayor Jendricks Luna and his wife vice-mayor Joy Chrisma in connection with an alleged anomaly in a road project.

Vice Gov. Ronald Balao-as, with eight of the nine-member Abra provincial board, found the Luna and his wife were guilty of dishonesty and grave misconduct regarding a supposedly unfinished 1,740 meter Bai-Nagba Road in Barangay Ba-i, Lagayan worth P1,071.850 which the mayor reported as already concreted.

Last August 6, Sangunniang Bayan member Noel Cortez complained before the Abra provincial board that the road project, supposedly funded by the town’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), has remained “a pebble and dirt road” despite Luna’s report that it was already completed.

The Abra provincial board summoned Luna to disprove Cortez’s allegation, and accorded him due process by asking to explain his side.

However, Luna, through his counsel, even asked the provincial board to keep its “hands off” from the investigation, while insisting that some sections of the road were already completed, and that there was no irregularity in the road construction project.

The board then asked Abra Gov. Jocelyun Bernos to suspend the Lunas administratively for three months so that they could not influence any investigation into Cortez’s complaint.

On Sept. 11, Bernos placed the couple on preventive suspension for 90 days.

The Lunas maintained in their pleadings and answers to the provincial board that the project was completed, even submitting photographs of a concreted road.

But, upon verification by the Provincial Engineering Office’s inspectorate team, it was found that the road was only made of “earth road surface”.