Laoag SK prexy to face raps at the Office of the President?

By Dominic B. dela Cruz (Staff Reporter)

Laoag City—The city’s Sangguniang Kabataan federation president and Sangguniang Panlungsod ex-officio member Anzhelyka Faye Lao expressed surprise on the issue of an alleged case filed against her at the Office of the President.

Ms. Lao, in an interview during a regular session, said she does not know anything about any complaint filed against her at the Office of the President; she, however said she is aware of an administrative charge filed by Barangay 47 (Bengcag) SK chairperson Mary Diane Domingo.

Ms. Domingo filed an administrative charge at the Office of the Sangguniang Panlungsod for “grave misconduct and gross inefficiency resulting to loss of confidence against Lao”.  

The complaint stemmed from an event in November 2018 during a seminar, training, team-building session attended by all Laoag SK chairpersons, which the budget or funding was allegedly questioned.

The complaint also indicated the alleged incompetence of Ms. Lao “with no significant projects and developments in her two years as SK federated president of Laoag”.

The complainant also said that the city’s SK federation no longer have meetings “due to lack of quorum,” which Ms. Domingo averred “undeniably made” Ms. Lao “incompetent as federated president”.

 

Lao responds

In response to this, Ms. Lao denied all the allegations; she stressed that despite that the federation having no fund, it does not mean they can no longer implement projects. She noted that even a “simple yet meaningful” project like the on-going printing services helping students in their home schooling.

Ms. Lao also corrected that is always a quorum when the city’s SK conduct meetings.   

The embattled SK official also emphasized that she is willing to answer whatever formal charges are filed against her.

She disclosed that the November 2018 issue is already at the Commission on Audit (COA) which is presently investigating the said issue.

 

No jurisdiction

The complaint, however, was not entertained or even discussed by the city council in their October 21, 2020 regular session.

Laoag vice mayor and council presiding officer Atty. Vicentito M. Lazo explained that the city council has no jurisdiction to tackle the matter because the respondent is a member of the body and a similar complaint was already filed at the Office of the President by SK federated vice president Juan Carlo Tabios III.

During the “other matters” segment of the October 28, 2020 regular session, Ms. Lao asked the presiding officer where he got the information that a complaint is already filed against her at the Office of the President.

Mr. Lazo said Mr. Tabios sought his help from because there were allegedly four male individuals riding-in-tandem in two motorcycles who went to Mr. Tabios’ house late at night asking the whereabouts of the said SK vice president.  

Apparently, it was the mother who talked to them and out of fear, the mother denied that her son was at home but in reality, Mr. Tabios was at home.

According to Mr. Tabios, the four persons threatened his mother telling her “Iyatras na dapat diay complaint”.

It was at this time that the vice mayor learned about the complaint and asked Mr. Tabios about it.

 

Questioning the presiding officer

Laoag councilor Atty. Jason Bader Perera, in his privilege speech, questioned Mr. Lazo’s decision that the issue was not under their jurisdiction.

Mr. Perera insisted that the matter should have been referred to the committee concerned and that the matter of jurisdiction should have been tackled by the council as a collegial body.

Mr. Lazo replied with a privilege speech of his own.

He explained that the complaint was not under their jurisdiction for the simple reason that the respondent is a member of the council, as ex-officio member representing the SK federation.

He added that if they tackled the complaint as a collegial body, his decision will still be backed by the majority.

He expounded that Ms. Lao, councilors Derick Lao and Handy Lao—father and cousin of the SK president, respectively—might recuse from the discussion.

The Ilocos Times tried to interview Mr. Tabios but he never replied to queries to him.