President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed a new chief of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) replacing Benny Antiporda, who was suspended for six months after being accused by employees of the agency of grave misconduct, harassment, oppression, and ignorance of the law.
Replacing Antiporda is former Piddig, Ilocos Norte mayor Eduardo “Eddie” Guillen, whose appointment papers as acting administrator were signed on Dec. 9.
The replacement of Antiporda came less than a month after he was placed on a six-month preventive suspension without pay by the Office of the Ombudsman after NIA employees and officials filed complaints against him.
Complainants claimed that as a retaliation, Antiporda barred managers of the NIA Central Office from traveling which “is counterproductive to their work,” while several officials were reassigned and transferred, supposedly without valid grounds.
Antiporda was also said to have threatened not to renew appointments of some workers who fixed the air-conditioning unit of his residence but could not finish the job at once, the Office of the Ombudsman said.
Guillen served several terms as mayor of Piddig, an Ilocos Norte town that was included in this year’s top 10 performing local government units.
Guillen was first elected as mayor in 2010 and was succeeded in the May polls by his wife, incumbent Piddig Mayor Georgina Guillen.
He graduated with a Civil Engineering degree from the Mapua Institute of Technology and studied Strategic Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific.
