New mayor, VM of San Fernando City take oath

By Erwin Beleo 

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – Vice Mayor Alfredo Pablo R. Ortega replaced this city’s mayor Hermenegildo Gualberto after his brother La Union Gov. Francisco Emmanuel Ortega administered his oath of office last Monday, Feb. 3 at the provincial capitol here.

Replacing Ortega as San Fernando City Vice Mayor was Maria Rosario Eufrosina Nisce who also took her oath before the elder Ortega.

The new mayor assumed his post after the Dept. of the Interior and Local Government Region 1 served a statement of dismissal on Gualberto at 1 p.m. Monday.

The dismissal was due to the case against Gualberto by Office of the Ombudsman charging him for grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty for the alleged misuse of development funds for supposedly allowing the use of at least P66.5 million from the city’s 2017 and 2018 internal development fund to upgrade the plaza.

“Wherefore, Mayor Gualberto is hereby found guilty of grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty and is meted the penalty of dismissal from the service pursuant to the 2017 Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service,” read part of the decision signed and approved by Edilberto Sandoval, acting overall deputy Ombudsman