PDP-Laban officials face complaint for partisan politics

MANILA, Philippines — A private citizen has filed an administrative complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman against three PDP-Laban personalities who are government officials for participating in a partisan political activity held in Cebu last May 31.

Named respondents in the 17-page complaint were Raul Lambino, presidential adviser for Northern Luzon and administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and PDP-Laban vice president for external affairs; Melvin Matibag, president and chief executive officer of the National Transportation Corp. and party deputy secretary-general; and Undersecretary Astravel Pimentel-Naik, executive director of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and part of PDP-Laban’s membership committee.

Victor Morillo, a resident of Quezon City and an advocate for greater public accountability, alleged that respondents engaged in a political activity prohibited under Executive Order No. 292 or the Administrative Code of 1987, during the party’s council meeting held in Cebu City last May 31.

The meeting’s agenda was to urge President Duterte to run for vice president in 2022.

“The respondents violated the prohibition on partisan political activity for officers and employees of the civil service. Law and jurisprudence had stated clear exceptions for public officers and employees participating in partisan political activities,” the complaint read.

Morillo stressed “the provisions of the Administrative Code of 1987 and the Omnibus Election Code expressly exclude civil officers or employees who hold political offices from the prohibition against engaging in any election campaign or partisan political activity.”

“The respondents are not members of the Cabinet. Neither are they among the other exceptions for permissible partisan political activity under law and jurisprudence,” Morillo said in the complaint.

“During the PDP-Laban National Council Meeting, the three respondents certainly made speeches, announcements for the purpose of undertaking the election of President Duterte as vice president for the 2022 national elections,” he said.

“All of these utterances are within the prohibition on political commentaries, speeches, announcements and interview by non-excepted members of the civil service,” he added.

Morillo asked the Office of the Ombudsman to order the preventive suspension without pay of Lambino, Matibag and Pimentel-Naik while their case is being heard and their dismissal from the service if they’re proven to have violated the law.