Kalinga provincial board member Gelacio Bongngat (photo by Gerigie Gacuya)
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
The online news portal of TV5
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- The Sanguniang Panlalawigan of Kalinga has passed a resolution condemning Governor Jocel Collado Baac, who is accused of mauling Matthew Matbagan, the provincial board’s secretary, on May 11.
SP Resolution 2015-059, passed the day after the incident, called for Baac to be sanctioned for grave abuse of authority and accused him of betraying public trust for the incident, which happened inside the governor’s office.
It is not the first time Baac has been accused of physical assault. In 2011, he stormed a local radio station and attacked broadcaster Jerome Tabanganay, for which he was roundly condemned by media and briefly suspended a year after the incident.
The blotter entry on the alleged mauling of Matbagan recorded by the Tabuc City police said Baac had summoned the board secretary to his office at 11:30 a.m. on May 11 to complain about terminology used in SP Resolution 2015-058 declaring the Kalinga Gabriela Mija Kim Medical center an extension of the Kalinga Provincial Hospital.
When Matbagan tried to explain, Baac allegedly grabbed him by the collar and punched him in the face and body.
The resolution said the governor’s police security detail prevented him from further harming Matbagan and that the incident was witnessed by visitors to Baac’s office.
A medico-legal certificate said Matbagan suffered contusions on the face and abrasions on the neck.
The day after the incident, board member Gelacio Bongngat, majority leader and chairman of the committee on rules and ethics, delivered a privilege speech saying the incident “deserves the highest degree of condemnation (in) the strongest sense of the word” as he stressed that Baac “is mandated by law to protect the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights.”
The provincial board pointed out that Matbagan was not responsible for the resolution Baac questioned, only for certifying to the fact that the SP had indeed taken up the matter.
It said Baac could simply have disapproved the resolution since he is empowered to do so by the Local Government Code.
“If no one among us here would not be brave enough to stand for the truth and air our sympathy to our co-employee of the provincial government against the seemingly irked governor, then maybe some or all of us in this institution would also be a potential victim of the same act of the governor if such act would not be corrected in accordance with the rules of law,” Bongngat said in his privilege speech.
Baac is a member of the Liberal Party.
Attempts to reach him on his phone have proved in vain as of this posting.
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