Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua goes on a well-deserved vacation whether he likes it or not, the latest sampling of the government’s consistent and persistent fight against graft and corruption, and against those suspected of having links to drugs.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government acted swiftly to execute the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon’s suspension order against Cua.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año did not waste time to sack Cua. He directed the DILG regional office to install Vice Governor Sherley Abundo, as acting governor.
It’s disgusting that notorious trapos facing graft and other criminal cases are still allowed to run for reelection, as in the case of Cua.
Cua’s suspension arose from a complaint of private citizen Rey Mendez over the governor’s “abuse of authority, dishonesty, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.”
Mendez vowed to strongly oppose any attempt by Cua to secure a court injunction against the DILG implementation of the suspension order handed down by the Deputy Ombudsman.
The governor supposedly allowed ER Construction, a private company, to use a vacant provincial government lot for storage and workers’ barracks without the consent of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
In his resolution of the complaint, the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon said that the “testimony of the complainant and the documents presented, which are indicative of strong evidence of guilt, at this stage, compel this office to grant the preventive suspension prayed for.”
Prior to the case, Cua had been implicated in illegal drugs trafficking, as well as other cases of allegations of graft and corruption. Cua and several officials of the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative Inc. (FICELCO) were investigated by the Congressional committee on dangerous drugs following the expose on the operations of a “mega-shabu laboratory” in Virac.
Other pending cases against Cua include the complaint of the family of journalist and publisher Larry Que, who was slain by gunmen last Dec. 10 in Virac.
Cua was tagged as the mastermind in Que murder by PO1 Vincent Tacorda, one of the suspects who surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation.
Tacorda confessed that Que was ordered liquidated for his serialized exposé on the mega-shabu lab operations, involving Cua and a former local NBI official.
Cua, who is running for reelection in May, has vehemently denied all the allegations against him. Unfortunately for him, higher authorities decided he has to take some time off as head of the province.
It is in these instances where the government regains the trust and confidence of the people, unlike the past years when the big fish often escape unscathed”‹
