Any elected or appointed public official should be made to face stiffer penalties if they refuse to comply when they are served with an executory legal suspension or removal order.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the additional penalty should include temporary or permanent disqualification from running for office or holding any government position.

Such is the case, he said, for Bonifacio, Occidental Mayor Samson Dumanjug and his wife Vice Mayor Evelyn Dumanjug who were meted a preventive suspension order by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Misamis Occidental due to allegations of corruption.

The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs earlier initiated a public hearing into the alleged inhumane, violent and highly irregular acts perpetrated by the Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel against the mayor, who refused to surrender to police at the time the suspension order was released.

“I dont think anyone asked the suspended mayor, in the beginning of the hearing, why he refused to follow a legal order and vacate his office. If he did, at the outset, there would have been no untoward incident to begin with,” Escudero pointed out.

Escudero also said the fact that Dumanjug was insisting that he was not read his miranda rights “is actually an admission that he committed, or is at least a suspect in, a crime or violation of law.”

Thus, “temporary or permanent disqualification to run and hold public office must be added as a penalty against those who refuse to obey an executory legal suspension or removal order against any public official or employee, elected or appointed,” Escudero said.

He said the PNP should not shirk from its duty to “enforce the law as well as legal orders” simply because the situation was politically charged.

“If the Chief of Police of the town had acted immediately, instead of taking the side of the suspended mayor, escalation would have been prevented,” he said.

Escudero added the cops deployed to serve the order didn’t have to get the Chief PNP’s approval in executing or implementing such orders since the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) itself recognizes the mayor’s suspension order.

Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, chairman of the public order committee, also agreed saying that in cases like this, the DILG’s intervention is truly needed.

Dela Rosa had called for a review of the current operating guidelines and protocols of the PNP in response to the incident.

“Yes, in order to avoid tension and consequently violence, but we can not blame a duly elected official to insist on his rights, duties and responsibilities if he believes he has the legal basis to do so,” Dela Rosa pointed out.

“That is why we need the active role of the DILG in resolving matters like these since it is the appropriate apolitical body,” he stressed.