MISAMIS Occidental Gov. Henry Oaminal yesterday said law enforcement agents were pressed to use force in enforcing the suspension order on Bonifacio town mayor Samson Dumanjug and his wife, Vice Mayor Evelyn Dumajug to resume the delivery of basic services to their constituents.
Oaminal appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs for the hearing called by chairman Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa, in calling for the probe, has cited the letter-complaint of the Dumanjug couple that local police officers and local government executives subjected them to alleged inhumane and violent treatment when they were evicted from the municipal hall building last June 16.
Oaminal told senators that the Dumanjugs have locked themselves in the mayor’s office since May 30 after he directed the service of the preventive suspension order issued by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Misamis Occidental in relation to Administrative Case No. 01-23 or a case of betrayal of public trust against the couple.
The case stemmed from an administrative complaint filed against the Dumanjug couple last September 2022 for abuse of authority, dishonesty, and grave misconduct for the procurement of excavators and garbage compactor trucks which were allegedly overpriced.
On December 3, 2022, Oaminal said the SP issued a penalty of six months suspension against the Dumanjug couple after they were found guilty of the administrative charges. The suspension order expired on June 5 this year.
While the suspension order was still in effect, Oaminal said the Dumanjug couple appeared at the Bonifacio municipal hall and assumed office as mayor and vice mayor, respectively, “despite the aforementioned suspensions.”
Due to their alleged illegal assumption of office, Oaminal said another administrative case was filed against the Dumanjug couple before the SP last March 13 for “betrayal of public trust.”
On May 29, Oaminal said the SP issued another resolution recommending to the provincial governor to cause a 60-day preventive suspension against the mayor and vice mayor, which prompted him to come up with a special order to implement the order on May 30.
He said the suspension order was served but the Dumanjug couple, “with the assistance” of their grandson, SP member Mac Leish D. Panal, refused to receive the order “and locked themselves in the office of the mayor and prevented servers from performing their duties.”
On May 31, he said Mayor Dumanjug still refused to leave his office and closed some offices of the municipal hall “in order not to let employees in.”
The following day, Oaminal said he issued a special order requesting the Misamis Occidental Police Provincial Office to clear the premises and take the appropriate action against the Dumanjug couple and Panal “and other unauthorized personnel” to ensure the continued delivery of basic services and to “maintain peace and order in the municipality of Bonifacio.”
“However, there was no action from the provincial police director,” he said, prompting him to activate the Incident Command System (ICS) to take over the situation.
On June 4, he said efforts were made to clear the mayor’s office, “but to no avail” as the Dumajugs “still went on with their unlawful occupation in the municipal building.”
On June 7, he said the Department of the Interior and Local Government Region 10 issued a memorandum recognizing Ricky Bulahan as the acting municipal mayor of Bonifacio town. This was supported with a letter dated June 9, 2023 coming from the DILG Central Office in Quezon City.
Oaminal said that on June 14, he issued an executive order reorganizing the Incident Command System and named Retired Brig. Gen. Joseph Villanueva, of PMA Class of 1985, as the new ICS commander “with my specific instruction to suppress the disorder in Bonifacio peacefully and adhere to the utmost protection of human rights without harm to anyone.”
“The case in hand is plain and simple. It is about the issue of graft and corruption committed by suspended Mayor Samson Dumanjug and Vice Mayor Evelyn Dumanjug and their defiance to the legal orders issued and implemented by duly constituted authorities,” Oaminal said.
He said the Dumanjugs used social media to “sensationalize and dramatize” that they were the victims of oppression by the police and provincial leadership to gain sympathy “for the purpose of covering up the real issues of corruption, unlawful occupation, and defiance to legal orders.”
Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur Mayor Charlotte Dumanjug-Panal, daughter of the Dumanjugs, said there was overkill in taking out her parents from the municipal hall considering that her father and mother are already in their 70s.
She said the implementing authorities led by the ICS team were not able to show an order to extricate her parents out of the municipal hall building and that armored personnel carriers were placed on standby at the compound, aside from numerous cops in full-battle gear and men in civilian clothes whose faces were covered with masks.
She said that even her parents’ legal counsel and close relatives were not allowed to enter the compound and it took the PNP Special Action Force, who were inside the building, to escort the lawyer inside.
Dumanjug-Panal said the ICS team smashed the glass windows of the mayor’s office just to get her parents out.
She said her parents refused to vacate the office since they have secured an order from Malacañang which annulled the preventive suspension order, and doing so would mean that they have abandoned their posts, which can be a ground for another case.
Oaminal said the order from Malacañang was for the first administrative cases filed against the Dumanjugs, but they were already serving the second suspension order.
Mayor Dumajug said when the ICS team were able to force their way into his office, the team, along with cops wearing full-battle gear, aimed their high-powered rifles on him, dragged him into a wheelchair with his hands bound with a “malong.” He added his head was also covered with a malong.
