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Bacolod City, Philippines Friday, April 20, 2012
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We’re taking legal action,
wife of Alejandrino says

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The wife of the late Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Secretary Nilo Alejandrino yesterday said they are preparing to take legal action against certain individuals.

Melba Alejandrino, however, refused to give any specifics that she said may weaken the case. She also said they are doing this as non-political persons and that no one is behind them.

Alejandrino’s legal counsel, Lorenzo Almenaza, said they are preparing to take legal steps.

Alejandrino, 58, passed away Saturday at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center.

His family claimed that his health deteriorated due to depression after he was suspended and finally dismissed from the service with forfeiture of all his benefits.

Melba, who works in the United States, said their children had difficulty trying to pull her husband out of stress and depression after his dismissal and forfeiture of benefits, since he was not eating anymore.

Sources from the SP, show however, 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.

CAUSE OF DEATH

Alejandrino’s death certificate showed that his immediate cause of death was liver failure, with pancreatic cancer with liver, lung and spinal cord metastasis, as underlying cause.

His family went to his office yesterday to take his personal belongings in the presence of the SP staff who documented everything.

Melba said Alejandrino had a good track record and was valedictorian and an outstanding employee. One cannot question his leadership, she said.

Alejandrino told their children that he wanted to rest because he was already tired, she said. But he hanged on until she and their daughter, Pearl, returned from the U.S., she said.

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 in relation to a chair-throwing incident at the SP Secretary’s Office last year.

PETITION DENIED

Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman issued an order denying the petition of Distrito to place Alejandrino under preventive suspension, after finding no sufficient basis against him.

In her order dated January 2, 2012, Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer l Luanne Ivy Cabatingan, said that evidence did not show that there are witnesses, if any, who could be influenced by Alejandrino, or evidence that may be prejudiced by his continued stay in office.

Distrito, however, said the Ombudsman mistakenly acted on an administrative complaint because what he had filed before it against Alejandrino was a criminal complaint.

WRONG CASE

Distrito said he only filed a criminal complaint against Alejandrino with the Ombudsman. The administrative case was filed with the Office of the Vice Mayor, as the disciplining authority.

Distrito said he had manifested to the Ombudsman that he had not filed an administrative complaint with it against Alejandrino.

Since the criminal case is automatically dismissed the moment the respondent dies, he said, the case with the Ombudsman will become moot and academic.

Meanwhile, Distrito said, the administrative case he filed with the Office of the Vice Mayor is now pending at the Civil Service Commission.

Distrito also reiterated his appeal to their political detractors and their barkers not to exploit the death of Alejandrino.

Distrito said exploiting the death of a person to further one’s political ambition is the worst form of politicking, and the people will definitely realize that such politicians are not really sincere in condoling, and are actually using Alejandrino’s family.

Distrito said that, in this case, he is the victim because he was the one insulted and at whom a chair was thrown. So it is his right to file a case and defend himself , the same way Alejandrino filed a case against him, he said.*CGS

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