Ocon to face blue ribbon probe if…

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE city council’s blue ribbon committee would be compelled to start an official investigation into Councilor Zaldy Ocon’s alleged violation of environmental laws if a complaint is filed against him before the city’s legislature or if the lawmaking body itself tasks the committee to look into the matter, Councilor Leon Gan said yesterday.

Gan, chairman of the council’s blue ribbon committee, said this in reaction to the Aug. 28 road accident in Medina, Misamis Oriental, that resulted in the confiscation of over 700 board feet of protected hardwood species that would have been brought to Cagayan de Oro using Ocon’s black Toyota Hi-Lux pick-up truck. The councilor’s vehicle flipped over and plunged into an open drain.

Ocon has been drawing flak on local radio and social networking sites mainly because he is chairman of the city council’s environment committee which recommends policies and proposes laws for the protection of the environment.

But Gan said the blue ribbon committee cannot start an investigation into the Ocon case without a “verified complaint” against the councilor.

In the absence of a formal complaint, he said, the blue ribbon committee could start an investigation if there is a “referral” from the city council––meaning, the legislature tasks the committee to investigate. Gan said the “referral” from the city council could only happen if any of the councilors would raise the matter during the council’s session.

Ocon may even raise the matter and “voluntarily submit” himself to an investigation by the blue ribbon committee, Gan said.

The city council has a history of investigating members without a formal complaint. It happened in the ’90s when Councilor Ramon Tabor asked for an investigation into the Gold Star Daily’s investigative reports about allegations that he had pressured a city council worker to give him a share of her monthly salary. The worker was hired after Tabor recommended her.

Tabor strongly denied that he had asked for a share of the worker’s monthly salary, explaining later that her family owed him money.

Responding to Tabor’s call, the city council had him and another councilor, Jose Pepe Abbu, investigated, and following a committee investigation, the two were slapped with an official “censure.”

“The blue ribbon committee cannot investigate, motu propio. This is not allowed under the rules and procedures of the city council. If there is no complaint filed or there is no referral to my committee, I cannot take the necessary action against a member of the city council because that would not be ‘due process,’” Gan explained. “But if a complaint is filed, then the accused would be asked to answer.”

Environment officials in Gingoog City said on Thursday that they have summoned Ocon so he could explain why his pick-up truck was used in moving protected lauan and magcono lumbers from Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Ocon has admitted that the confiscated lumbers were his, and that he bought these from a furniture store for P29 thousand. He said he saw nothing wrong with what he did because the lumbers were intended for a house he is building for his family in Barangay Cugman.