Unaffected by powerless persona non grata reso, Misor dads now want secretary probed

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

THE provincial board on Monday moved to subject Sangguniang Panlalawigan secretary Ernesto Sotto Jr. to an administrative investigation by the provincial legal office, months after declaring him persona non grata over his stinging election-related social media posts.

The move is aimed at booting out Sotto who has remained unaffected by a resolution that declared the official persona non grata.

In May, provincial board members cried foul over Sotto’s Facebook posts that criticized the way Misamisnons voted. One post that caught the ire of the province’s legislators likened the province’s voters to prostitutes “who spread their legs to the highest bidder.”

The provincial board approved a resolution that authorized the filing of a formal complaint against Sotto for “negligence, misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service on Monday.”

The complaint would be submitted to the provincial legal office.

The resolution was authored by provincial board member Michele Anayron, president of the Philippine Councilors’ League in the province, to complement the legislature’s persona non grata declaration.

Anayron said, “The malicious, defamatory and irresponsible utterances and statements made by SP Secretary Sotto in the social media are deemed grave misconduct and or, as the resolution states, patently conduct unbecoming and is not a permissible act of a government employee.”

Anayron said the call for an administrative  investigation is based on a provision in the Local Government Code that states that a legal officer is duty-bound to “investigate or cause to be investigated any local official or employee for administrative neglect or misconduct on office, and recommend appropriate action to the governor, mayor or sanggunian as the case may be.”

He said the persona non grata declaration “seems to have not affected” Sotto.