By Ric Clet,
Correspondent
and Nora Soriño,
Iligan City Bureau Chief
Balabagan, Lanao Sur — In its dismissal order, the Ombudsman did not include the cancellation of her license to practice medicine, forfeiture of her retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from holding office, the embattled town mayor said.
Balabagan Mayor Edna Ogka-Benito’s clarification come at heels of recent news reports that her eligibility have been cancelled, along with the forfeiture of her retirement benefits and supposed perpetual disqualification from hold public office.
She said there were no such statements in the Ombudman’s order.
The Order, to note, reads: “Wherefore, on the foregoing, the (Ombudsman) finds respondent Edna Ogka-Benito, Municipal Mayor of Balabagan, Lanao del Sur, guilty of the administrative offense of grave misconduct and is meted penalty of dismissal from service with all its accessory penalties.”
“It only stated ‘accessory penalties’without specifying,” Ogka-Benito said.
Ogka-Benito has been ordered dismissed as town mayor after the Office of the Ombudsman found guilty of grave misconduct “for ignoring the established rules on payment of salaries and leave approval.”
She claimed the Ombudsman did not give her a “fair treatment” by issuing the dismissal order without reading her position letter.
She said she immediately stepped down and did not seek the rule of condonation of the Aguinaldo doctrine which states that public officials who have administrative cases and convicted, when elected, those cases will be forgotten and continue with their new mandate.
She has filed a petition for review with the Court of Appeals, she said and the vice mayor who is her son is now the incumbent mayor.
“My only hope is for the (Court of Appeals) to review my case and I also urge (the) media to be fair in reporting as we have our dignity and deserve respect because of our credibility which we have nurtured for years (which will be) destroyed by baseless reports,” Ogka-Benito said.
She said the controversial news report stemmed after the proclamation of former Mayor Hadji Amer Sampiano last December 2014 was annulled and she assumed as such as she got the second highest number of votes.
“I required all the employees to submit their original appointment and I required complainant budget officer Sarahlyn Masbod to produce a copy of her appointment as such. She did not show credible proof of such appointment,” Benito said, the appointment was not duly authenticated or certified by a competent authority.
Ogka-Benito said Masbod was dropped from the roll. This decision, she said, was even affirmed by the Sangguniang Bayan which passed Resolution No. 41.
“I am a victim of character assassination. I need justice and am planning to sue those people who are behind this political harrassment,” she said.
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