PALACE SUSPENDS ABRA VGOV FOR 18 MONTHS FOR LOCKING DOWN HOSPITAL DURING PANDEMIC

August 24, 2024 Community Billboard

BANGUED, Abra

Malacanang suspended Abra Vice-governor Ma. Jocelyn Valera-Bernos for 18 months after unjustly locking down the Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued, Abra during the pandemic. A copy of the decision from the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs (DESLA) of the Office of the President, Valera-Bernos, then Abra governor, was ordered to flee from her post after finding her guilty of Oppression and Abuse of Authority, Conduct
unbecoming of a public official and disobedience to national government policies.

The 18-month suspension stemmed from a complaint against Valera-Bernos on December 2020 by Dr. Voltaire L. Seares, medical director of the Dr. Petronillo Seares Sr. Memorial Hospital after the then lady governor imposed a
lockdown over the hospital. According to the complaint of Dr. Seares, the Provincial Government of Abra immediately imposed a lockdown on the hospital, installed barricades around it and placed the Barangay under Extreme Enhanced Community Quarantine (EECQ) when one of their nurses was stricken with Corona Virus Disease (Covid 19) on June 2020. People inside the hospital were barred from leaving the premises, he added.

The lockdown order was said to have been posted on the social media by then Governor Valera Bernos. Seares complained that the governor ordered the lockdown of the hospital without sufficient basis and in patent violation of the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID). He stressed that the lockdown was made prematurely and without the concurrence of the Cordillera Administrative Region-Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (CAR RIATF). “As a result of Governor Valera-Bernos’ acts, the freedom of
movement and right to travel to various person trapped inside the hospital were violated resulting to undue injury and prejudice.

The hospital owner’s property tights as well as its doctors and other medical practitioners’ right to exercise a lawful profession were curtailed, and most of all, the people of Abra were deprived of their access to health care,” Seares said in his complaint. The DESLA on February 2021 transmitted the records of the case to the Department of Interior and Local Government for investigation in which the latter submitted its reports in June 2022. to Valera-Bernos was also asked to answer the complaint of Seares against her.

Weighing the reports, issues and the arguments of the camps involved, the DESLA found that Valera-Bernos committed the charges being thrown against her by Seares regardless of her intentions for the interest of the public. “Lastly, while this office takes note if the defense of Governor Valera-Bernos that she acted in the interest of public safety and general welfare of the great number of Abreños and that the right to property and liberty, during a state of calamity must yield to the general welfare of the people, her acts spoke otherwise,” the Malacanang decision said.

Valera-Bernos was found guilty of Oppression and Abuse of Authority, Conduct unbecoming of a public official and disobedience to national government policies with 6-month suspension each as penalty, making it a total of 18 months. Valera-Bernos though in a statement released Thursday morning, stressed that the charges against her were actually dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman on May 4, 2022 where, according to her, it was ruled out that her
actions were done in good faith and within the bounds of her duty as a public servant during a state of calamity.

She stressed that her directive of an EECQ was never aimed to target any specific hospital, but a necessary and
immediate action to mitigate the probable spread of the virus when at that time no known control and vaccine were available. “Kakailyak, haantayo ipalubos nga agballaygi dagiti tattao nga adda iti likod dagitoy (My fellow Abrenians, we should not allow the people behind this to to be thriumphant in these) “politically motivated character and reputation attacks against me”, Valera-Bernos stressed. She said that despite this, she assured that she as Vice Governor together with his father, Abra Governor Dominic Valera, will continue to look after the safety and welfare of the public.

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN

HAMON NI CAYETANO SA PHILHEALTH: TUPARIN AT PABILISIN ANG PANGAKONG 'ZERO BILLING'

August 24, 2024

PITFALLS IN PHILIPPINE EDUCATION

August 24, 2024