Porac officials suspended by Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday announced that it has suspended Porac, Pampanga Mayor Jaime Capil and 10 other municipal officials over allegations of gross neglect of duty related to a raided illegal POGO in their town in June.

In an order dated 8 October, Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the preventive suspension of Capil, Vice Mayor Francis Laurence Tamayo and councilors Rohner Buan, Rafael Canlapan, Adrian Carreon, Regin Clarete, Essel Joy David, Hilario Dimalanta, Michelle Santos and John Nuevy Venzon, along with Emerald Vital, OIC-Business Permit and Licensing Office.

The local officials are preventively suspended for up to six months without pay pending the case’s resolution.

In a statement, the Ombudsman said that the order — which is immediately executory — pertains to the administrative complaint filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government over the “alleged involvement of particular local government officials…in the illegal POGO operation within the locality.”

In June, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, along with different police units, raided Lucky South 99 Corp., a POGO hub in Porac, where 160 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, were apprehended. The authorities launched the operation over allegations of unlawful activities, such as torture and scam, against Lucky South.