PUERTO Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron agreed on Monday to vacate his office, paving the way for the enforcement of his dismissal by the Ombudsman for dishonesty and grave misconduct, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said Tuesday.
Sueno said Bayron agreed to vacate the mayor’s office after the Court of Appeals declined to issue a temporary restraining order stopping his dismissal.
“We already communicated this morning and [Vice Mayor Luis Marcaida III] will assume office and the mayor has agreed to step down,” Sueno said in a press briefing.
In its Dec. 15, 2016 ruling, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered Bayron dismissed from the service after he was found guilty of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct for facilitating the appointment of his son Karl as project manager of Bantay Puerto-VIPC Security Task Force.
Bayron was also meted the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from public office, cancellation of eligibility and forfeiture of retirement benefits.
Sueno said Bayron was very defiant in vacating his post, filed contempt charges against him for serving the dismissal order of the Ombudsman and blocking the assumption of Marcaida into office despite the order of the Ombudsman.
He said Bayron’s camp questioned the Ombudsman order based on an opinion of the Court of Appeals that the Ombudsman’s order is not final and executory but when Bayron filed a petition for a TRO, the court merely noted the plea without action.
Records show the elder Bayron entered into a contract of service with Karl who was hired as a project manager from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2013, with a monthly salary of P16,000.
The contract Karl “is not related within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity with the hiring authority.”
But Bayron explained that “the position of project manager is a non-plantilla and non-career position in the city government and that Karl’s primary function is to act as the head of the security personnel of the city mayor.”
Respondents also claimed that “Karl’s position is highly confidential in nature where trust and confidence are the primary considerations.”
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales stated that “while Karl’s engagement was to a confidential position, which is exempted from the rule on nepotism, the disclosure of their filial relationship was still necessary.”
“As for Lucilo, the untruthful statement in the narration of facts was made with abuse of his office as city mayor and as hiring authority,” Morales said.
