THE Department of Interior and Local Government is set to implement an order of the Office of the Ombudsman suspending the mayor of Tiaong, Quezon.  

DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero directed Region 1V-A director Josefina Castilla-Go to immediately serve the suspension order against Mayor Roderick Umali, who was slapped with a two-month suspension without pay for grave abuse of authority amounting to oppression.

The case stemmed from a complaint lodged by Expectacion Bautista-Baldeo, a Tindahan ng Bayan owner who claimed that the mayor harassed her for not supporting his candidacy during the 2010 elections.

In her sworn statement, Bautista-Baldeo said that Umali threatened to close her “talipapa” once he assumed office.

True enough, on July 6, 2010, Umali summoned Bautista-Baldeo to his office where she was issued a closure order for the operations of her store for alleged violation of sanitary regulations.

The complainant, however, claimed that she was not informed of the alleged violations nor given opportunity to do corrective measures.

She sought the court’s intervention and was able to obtain a temporary restraining order.

But Umali defied the TRO by ordering the police force and his private army to block all delivery of goods and commodities owned by the complainant. She was also deprived of using the municipal slaughterhouse.

“The acts imputed to respondent Mayor Umali constitute grave abuse of authority amounting to oppression,” the Ombudsman’s order read.