“The appeal of Vice Gov. Maria Jocelyn Valera-Bernos for President Marcos Jr. to mediate the legal tussle between the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Department of Interior and Local Government…and the court decision to hold in abeyance the suspension orders against the two top provincial officials…could help ease the tense political situation in Abra”
With two of its top officials placed under preventive suspension by Malacañang, Abra now finds itself in the grip of a legal dispute that could upset the fragile political situation in the province amid the midterm elections next year and prevent the timely delivery of vital services to its people.
Here’s what happened, as far as we could gather from news accounts.
On Dec. 2, 2024, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin ordered the preventive suspension for 60 days of Abra Gov. Dominic B. Valera based on a complaint lodged by Feber Alzate Palcon, wife of the late Bucay, Abra town councilor Juan Palcon who died in 2023.
Palcon claimed Valera violated the 1991 Local Government Code by installing another person to replace her husband despite a provision that allows the political party of the deceased councilor to name a replacement.
She said her husband’s party, the National Unity Party, endorsed her to serve her husband’s unfinished term until the 2025 elections.
Earlier, on 23 Sept. 2024, the Office of the Executive Secretary had also placed Vice Gov. Maria Jocelyn Valera-Bernos under preventive suspension to prevent her from exerting undue influence or pose a threat to the safety and integrity of the records and other evidence in the case.
The suspension of the two Abra officials follows close on the heels of a complaint filed on Oct. 8, 2020 by Dr. Voltaire Seares before the Office of the Ombudsman against then Gov. Valera-Bernos for oppression, abuse of authority and conduct unbecoming of a public official.
Bernos had ordered a lockdown of the Dr. Petronilo Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued due to a COVID-19 case in June 2020. Seares, the hospital’s administrator, said this deprived the public of essential healthcare services during the pandemic, a claim contradicted by Bernos.
Bernos was able to file on time a Special Civil Action for Certiorary and Prohibition with Urgent Prayer for a Temporary Restraining Order and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction. A TRO was issued by the Regional Court on Sept. 3, 2024 to maintain the status quo ante until further notice.
Meanwhile, the DILG Undersecretary for External Legal Affairs issued a memorandum on Sept. 4, 2024 stating clearly that in the decision of the case, “its effects are stayed” and the designation of Russell Bragas as Acting Vice Governor of the province of Abra is “effectively held in abeyance.”
Amid all this, Vice Gov. Valera-Bernos has already issued an urgent appeal to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to step in and mediate the ongoing political standoff.
She said the Office of the Governor and her office are in a state of confusion because of the unclear suspension orders issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
“We are concerned that this will result in chaos in terms of providing public services because the people of Abra are the ones suffering due to the lack of due process in issuing suspension orders…The public service process must be orderly because this is what the people of Abra deserve,” she pointed out.
Bersamin has defended the decision to suspend the two top provincial officials. The Valeras, he said, should accept that there is an ongoing process, and they have been suspended in accordance with pre-existing, not whimsical, rules.”
But the appeal of Vice Gov. Maria Jocelyn Valera-Bernos for President Marcos Jr. to mediate the legal tussle between the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Department of Interior and Local Government, on the one hand, and the court decision to hold in abeyance the suspension orders against the two top provincial officials, on the other, could help ease the tense political situation in Abra, and allow the two sides to work out a win-win solution that would ultimately benefit the province and its people as a whole.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
