DAGUPAN CITY — Mayor Ricardo Evangelista of Aguilar, Pangasinan said here today he was surprised to have learned that he was being suspended from office by the Ombudsman for a complaint against him that he did not know about.
“I was surprised. I did not know that there was a complaint against me,” Evangelista said in an interview over Aksyon Radyo here.
He said he never received any subpoena to allow him to answer the charges and he just learned about the complaint when the Department of the Interior and Local Government provincial office in Lingayen town served his supension order last Saturday.
The Ombudsman ordered the preventive suspension of Evangelista four months for alleged dishonesty and misconduct arising from his alleged irregular disbursement of the town’s special education fund.
“It happened so fast,” Evangelista said.
From the documents he received, he said he learned that the complaint was filed against him in Nov. 13 last year and within two months, he was already being suspended.
He also said the complaint against him was politically motivated because the complainant, Priscilla Villanueva, a supervisor of the Department of Education, is the aunt of Vice Mayor Cesar Villanueva.
“Definitely, there’s politics here because the supervisor and the vice mayor are close relatives. She also has other relatives who ran against me and lost in the 2004 elections,” Evangelista said.
Evangelista, who is now on his second term, ran under the opposition Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino while the vice mayor ran under the banner of the administration’s Lakas-CMD party.
But he said his suspension will not stop him from seeking reelection in the May elections because, he said, he still has the support his constituents.
He also said he has padlocked his office in the Aguilar municipal hall for fear that his detractors “might put something there that may be used against me.”
Evangelista also appealed for sobriety to his supporters. “Let us keep our town peaceful and orderly,” he said.