Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson yesterday appealed to their political foes not to exploit the death of former Sangguniang Panlungsod Secretary Nilo Alejandrino and antagonize the public against them.

Sayson said the death of Alejandrino should not be politicized and everybody should instead pray for the repose of his soul.

“Let us not make use of the situation to further our political gains and ambitions”, Sayson stressed.

He however, said he will not withdraw his earlier decision to dismiss the late SP secretary.

Asked if the city government will allow Alejandrino's remains to be brought to the Bacolod Government Center, Sayson said, it is up to his family if they want to.

Leonardia said that it is very unfortunate that, instead of respecting his family's grief, some politicians are making use of the death of Alejandrino to promote their ambitions.

The mayor he went to the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels yesterday to condole with the family of the late SP Secretary but for reasons he did not disclose, he was not able to enter the funeral chapel.

“I wanted to pay my last respects to him (Alejandrino) because we graduated together at (the University of) St. La Salle and I had signed his appointment as SP secretary when I was still the city's Vice Mayor”, Leonardia said.

A lejandrino, 58, passed away Saturday at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center in Bacolod City reportedly after suffering a stroke.

His legal counsel Ernesto Tuclaod has claimed that Alejandrino's health deteriorated due to depression after he was suspended and finally dismissed from the service with forfeiture of all his benefits.

Sources from the SP, however, said that records show that Alejandrino had been on sick leave several times in the past years, due to various ailments for which he had even gone to the United States allegedly for treatment. He had also been confined in the intensive care unit of a local hospital for the same ailments, the source said.

Tuclaod said they will ask the CSC to declare null and void the administrative cases filed against Alejandrino on the ground that the Office of the Disciplining Authority/ Office of the Vice Mayor has no jurisdiction to hear the case and there is an alleged abuse of authority on the part of the vice mayor.

Alejandrino was meted the penalty of dismissal from the service, cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from reemployment in the government service by the Office of the Vice Mayor for the administrative case filed against him by Councilor Ceasar Distrito.

Distrito had filed the complaint against Alejandrino for alleged grave misconduct, conduct unbecoming, gross insubordination, unprofessional conduct, and grave abuse of authority before the Office of the Vice Mayor, in relation to a chair-throwing incident at the SP Secretary's Office last year.

The Regional Trial Court had issued a resolution recalling and lifting the temporary restraining order it had earlier granted Alejandrino and also denied his prayer for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.*APN

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