CEBU CITY – Criminal and administrative complaints were filed against Siquijor Vice Gov. Mei Ling Quezon-Brown before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Charges of grave abuse of authority, serious dishonesty, gross misconduct, gross negligence, and acts inimical to public interest were filed against the official by one Marty Vittorio Saludar, a resident of Barangay Can-asagan, San Juan, Siquijor.
BROWN
Saludar asked the anti-graft court to investigate the vice governor for “her orders and actions at the Provincial Board (PB), including her issuance of office orders that bar people from entering the session hall without her approval.”
She said in her complaint that sessions and committee hearings are supposed to be open to all as provided for by the Local Government Code and their house rules.
The complaint for abuse of authority was for Brown’s alleged act of threatening a PB member for contempt during a committee hearing which is beyond her powers.
The alleged incident happened during the May 30 budget hearing where people’s attendance was restricted only to those who were invited.
At the time, the vice governor asked PB Member Erson Digal to remove lawyer Frank Dinsay from the session hall, and when Digal hesitated, Brown allegedly threatened him with contempt.
Also cited in the complaints was Brown’s act of creating a “committee as a whole” on her own without the required concurrence of PB members.
The complainant stated that board members even objected to the unlawful creation of the committee as a whole but the vice governor cut them short in mid-sentence. This was her attempt to reopen the budget hearings even if the PB was already done with this in the previous year.
All the acts narrated in the complaints were incidents that occurred during the tug-of-war in the approval of the revised 2024 annual budget where corrections were inserted as required by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Brown was accused of “fraudulently altering the calendar of business” wherein she took over the discussions on the budget despite the presence of the chairperson and vice chairperson of the committee on finance, appropriations, and ways and means.
The complaint also pointed out Brown’s issuance of Office Order NO. VGO-2024-0326 that requires the public to submit a formal request to her for her approval before any document can be released.
This, according to the complaint, contradicts the Code of Conduct for Public Officials which states that all public documents must be made accessible to the public within reasonable working hours.