CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “The truth shall set us free and I appeal to the mayor to respect the rule of law.”
Thus said Joey De Leon, former city administrator and chief of the city assessor’s office, as he decided to report for work on May 23 at the city hall following the order issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) last April.
Citing uniform rules on administrative cases of the CSC, De Leon said Mayor Oscar Rodriguez should allow him to occupy his former city hall post when he assumed in 2003 during the term of former Mayor Reynaldo Aquino, now president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
Then Pampanga Third District Rep. Aquino lost to Rodriguez in the mayoralty race in 2007.
De Leon said he respects the decision of Rodriguez to appeal the CSC resolution before the Court of Appeals (CA) and later to the Supreme Court (SC), if needed.
“But the CSC order is self-explanatory and we don’t need lawyers to understand and explain it,” said De Leon, stressing he should be reinstated as head of the assessor’s office by Rodriguez pending the appeal.
In the decision penned by Chairman Francisco Duque III, the CSC denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Rodriguez.
Duque and other signatories of the CSC resolution No. 09-1804 – Commissioner Mary Ann Mendoza and Director IV Dolores Bonifacio – upheld the earlier decision of the CSC in 2009 downgrading the cases filed against De Leon.
In 2008, the CSC dismissed De Leon from government service in connection with the grave misconduct and gross insubordination charges filed against him by Rodriguez.
The new CSC decision found De Leon liable for insubordination and slapped him with a three-month suspension which he had already served after being removed from office in 2008.
The case filed by Rodriguez reportedly stemmed from De Leon’s alleged refusal to give the “keys (password)” to open the computer data and records on the assessment of lands.
“My stand is that I am an ordinary employee. Whoever is the mayor is my boss. My loyalty is to my family, to the office and the people of San Fernando whom I am bound to serve,” said De Leon, a former city councilor and a graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas College of Commerce.
De Leon said he had no intention of disrespecting the mayor “but I just want to fight for my rights.”
“I should not have opened it up to the media. But you came here and I have to tell the truth,” said De Leon, who became city administrator of Aquino for eight years.
De Leon said he reported for work last Monday at the start of the flag-raising ceremony.
“I got this strange looks from many city hall workers but that’s natural. I will continue reporting for work because that’s the order of the CSC,” De Leon said.
Considered as the top ally of Aquino in his nine-year stint as mayor, De Leon of Barangay Maimpis was wearing a white polo barong similar to other city hall department heads and his identification card indicating he is the head of the assessor’s office when he spoke to Punto on Wednesday. After logging in at 8:00 a.m., he stays in a small room at the second floor of the assessor’s office.
