The Committee on Laws of the Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan has given Candoni Mayor Cicero Borromeo 15 days more to answer the four administrative complaints filed against him before it, for alleged grave misconduct and violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Public Officials and Employees.

Board Member Nehemias de la Cruz, vice chairman of the SP Committee on Laws, yesterday told Vice Governor Emilio Yulo III and his colleagues that the committee has granted the request for a 15-day extension made by  the counsel of Borromeo to answer the four complaints, because of the seriousness of allegations hurled against his client.

De la Cruz said Borromeo has until Feb. 4 to answer the administrative complaints filed against him by Bernabe Gilbor, Wilfredo Pacheco, Jonathan Janeo and Sonny Dematulac.

Gilbor, in his letter-complaint to the SP, claimed that Senior Inspector Anthony Cana, who is the Candoni police chief, upon instruction of Borromeo, intercepted and impounded his cargo truck loaded with assorted sizes of lumber, while it was passing in front of the municipal hall of Candoni in Nov. 6 last year, for alleged violation of PD 705.

Borromeo is also facing a complaint for allegedly violating PD 705, known as the Forestry Code of the Philippines, before the Office of Governor Isidro Zayco, with  Caningay Barangay Captain and ABC president of Candoni, Rolando Gequilan, as the complainant.

Gequilan claimed in his letter to Zayco dated Nov.7 that Borromeo violated PD 705, by cutting, gathering, and using deregulated trees of premium species for the renovation of the municipal hall, without securing a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

SPO1 Stanley Mendoza, TFI investigator who was sent to Candoni to verify the allegations of Gequilan, said Borromeo explained that 15 pieces of deregulated specie of yakal, with measurements of 2x12x12, were used as trusses in the renovation of the Candoni municipal hall.

Borromeo, however, said the yakal lumber, which was the excess from the construction of a cockpit in Sipalay City, had been offered to them for sale and he had bought it, Mendoza said.

He added that Borromeo told them that the lumber used in the renovation of the town municipal, police station, a multi-purpose hall at Linda Ville in Candoni, and those used in making coffins for free to indigents in the town, came from the four big mahogany trees that had been cut in front of the town hall.

Mendoza also said that Borromeo is providing free coffins to indigents of Candoni, and the wood being used came from the remnants of mahogany trees cut in front of the town hall.*GPB

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