Tension grips Iligan as Marzo supporters prepare for big rally

By NORA SORINO, SITA ASEQUIA of GSD-Iligan Bureau,
and LITO RULONA, Correspondent

ILIGAN City––Tension has gripped this city as supporters of Vice Mayor Ruderic Marzo, who is serving as acting mayor, started organizing a rally here apparently as a show of force, and in response to the week-long demonstrations staged by allies of detained Mayor Celso Regencia.

This came about even as a group of lawyers pressed criminal and administrative charges against Marzo and other officials before the ombudsman’s office in Cagayan de Oro for alleged usurpation of authority, falsification, and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act on Tuesday.

Also charged were councilors Providencio Abragan Jr., Marlene Young, Michelle Sweet-Booc, Emmanuel Salibay, Ariel Anghay, Roy Opiniano, Bayani Areola, Usafino Obial, Alfredo Busico, and Ceasarve Siacor.

Also included in the complaints were city legal consultants  Tomas Cabili, Rejoice Subejano, and Eulalio Gaite;

City human resource officer Mila Rodrigo, Marzo’s chief of staff Glen Quicoy, and disaster risk reduction management officer Loreto Tecson, Interior department city director Emilio Rana, and Lt. Col. Anton Abrina of the 4th Mechanized Battalion of the Army.

The complainants were lawyers Dexter Rey Sumaoy and Giovanni Encabo, city hall executive assistant Rafael Benedictos Jr., Edgardo Prospero and Zaldy Lim of the group called “Call for Peace and Justice.”

Subejano, a lawyer of Rep. Vicente Belmonte’s and a Liberal Party candidate for councilor, said a pro-Marzo “peace rally” has been set at the city hall grounds on Sunday afternoon.

Vice Mayor Marzo and Councilor Abragan have held on to their posts as acting mayor and acting vice mayor, respectively, even after Malacanang’s suspension order against Regencia lapsed.

They argued that Regencia, who is detained at the prison in at Tipanoy, this city, for allegedly masterminding the Dec. 11, 2014 ambush of Rep. Belmonte group near the airport in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental, has been “temporarily incapacitated” because of the case.

A regencia supporter, lawyer Rafael Benedictus, said Marzo and Abragan could not hold on to their posts based on a “mere opinion” of the Interior department.

In a 10-page complaint,  Marzo and the other officials were accused of usurpation of authority, falsifying public documents, persuading, inducing or influencing other public officers to perform acts constituting a violation of rules and regulations and causing undue injury, and of violating the anti-graft law.

The complainants said Regencia wrote a letter to the city council and informed it that his six months suspension has already been served, and that he was assuming his mayoral post. They said Marzo refused to give way, and the DILG officer sided with the vice mayor.

They also alleged that Marzo caused the deployment of Army personnel, and caused the hiring of more casual employees at the City Mayor’s Office and other city hall executive departments.