A motion to dismiss the administrative complaint filed by a City Hall employee against Mayor Evelio Leonardia will be filed, its Legal Officer Joselito Bayan yesterday said.

The Department of Interior and Local Government started yesterday the preliminary conference and formal investigation on the complaint filed Ma. Teresa Lozada against the Mayor involving her transfer to another assignment.

Lozada said she transferred to the General Services Office from her permanent position as Clerk II of the City Population Office, and later assigned to the Handumanan Public Cemetery as a common graveyard laborer effective February 4, 2011.

She claimed that the transfer order is illegal and contrary to law as it caused the diminution of her rank and status from a permanent government employee protected by the tenure of office, in contravention with Civil Service laws, rules and regulations.

Bayatan said the mayor issued a memorandum ordering Lozada re-assigned back to the City Population Office on May 16 even before the Civil Service Commission approved their motion to withdraw the motion for reconsideration they had filed.

They filed the motion to withdraw on April 20 which the CSC acted upon on May 10, he said. However, they only received it on May 18, he added.

Bayatan said the motive of transferring Lozada to another assignment was out of her undesirable work attitude. In fact she even filed a complaint against the mayor, he said. If there was bad faith on their part, they could have implemented disciplinary measures against her, he added.

Bayatan said they gave Lozada the opportunity to reform by putting her where she is adaptable, but she complained.

He said they informed the CSC of Lozada’s habitual tardiness and her discriminatory attitude toward her work.

When she was assigned at the One-Stop-Shop at SM-Bacolod for about a year where she dealt with businessmen, she did not complain, Bayatan said. But when she was assigned to the Department of Public Services to cater to indigent persons especially on funeral and burial assistance, she complained, he said.

Bayatan said “The CSC never said we were motivated by ill will in her designation. It only said that since the maximum one year period had already lapsed, Lozada has to be transferred back to her original designation.”.

He also said the CSC decision did not say her transfer was illegal, but it respected the mayor’s prerogative to transfer or reassign employees.

If there was bad faith on the part of the Mayor, she would not have been re-assigned to her original designation, he added

Bayatan said that, aside from the complaint filed by Lozada with the Office of the President, she also filed a similar complaint with the Civil Service Commission. The Office of the President delegated the investigation to the DILG, he said.

Bayatan said he filed a case of forum shopping, questioning the dual filing of the case.*CGS

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