A municipal mayor of Mauban, Quezon, and all members of the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) were charged Thursday before the Office of the Ombudsman with Grave Abuse of Authority for suspending 19 barangay chairmen for six months without the required formal hearing.

They were also accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for hiring and paying, with government funds, a private counsel who drafted the complaint for suspension and the resolution granting it.

Charged with gravely abusing their authority were Mayor Bautista Erwin Dwight Pastrana, Vice Mayor Alween Sardea, and SB Members Nathaniel Calucin, Abelardo Mandrique, Michael Diasanta, Raquel Almacen, Yolanda Santayana, Juan Lorenzo Pastrana, Edgardo Astoveza, Liza Mandrique, Julieto Espinas, and Marlon Luna.

Pastrana and two other local officials were also charged with graft for hiring, on behalf of the municipality, a private counsel who prepared the complaint and immediately drafted the resolution suspending the barangay heads. An administrative complaint was also filed against the private counsel for gross ignorance of the law.

The most recent Commission on Audit (COA) circular and Supreme Court (SC) rulings prohibit government entities from hiring private counsel not only to represent them in court but also for all forms of legal services, particularly tasks that properly belong to accountable government officers or employees.

In their complaint, the barangay chairmen cited Section 65 of the Local Government Code (LGC) and SC decisions requiring a formal hearing and investigation before any elective official can be suspended or removed from office. They pointed out that in Joson vs. Torres, the SC ruled: “When an elective official is suspended or removed, the people are deprived of the services of the man they elected. Implicit in the right to suffrage is the people are entitled to the services of the elective officials of their choice.”

The suspended barangay heads denounced their suspension as politically motivated and a form of vendetta, saying Mayor Pastrana accused them of supporting his political opponents in the last elections.

The suspension complaint was signed by barangay chairmen allied with the incumbent mayor, citing alleged violations of the Liga ng mga Barangay by-laws, such as frequent absences and failure to pay dues on time.

The suspended officials, however, argued that the disciplinary authority of the SB is limited to grounds enumerated in Section 60 of the LGC, which does not include alleged absences in Liga meetings. They added that Liga by-laws already impose fines for such absences.

They further claimed that the LGC and SC decisions prohibit even the President of the Philippines or his alter egos from interfering in Liga affairs, stressing that the Liga ng mga Barangay is an independent and autonomous association governed by its own constitution and by-laws.