• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Provincial Tourism officer Cheryl Decena and two other provincial government employees of Negros Occidental, who have filed a motion of reconsideration on their six-month suspension for simple neglect of duty, are hoping that their case will be evaluated by an independent legal team.
Decena and suspended Capitol employees April Love Wee and Ester Ignacio, in filing a motion for reconsideration, cited violations of their constitutional right to due process, since they were charged under the 2017 RACCS (Revised Administrative Cases in the Civil Service), but penalized under the 2025 RACCS.
The three suspended Capitol employees also noted that the disciplining authority failed to consider the present mitigating circumstances as required by the RACCS, such as length of service of the respondents, stressing also that this would be the first time any of the respondents were charged.
Decena, who formerly served as Mambukal Mountain Resort and Wildlife Sanctuary Officer-in-Charge, with four of her disbursing officers, has been suspended on the grounds of “simple neglect of duty”, which was aggravated due to the amount involved.
Provincial Legal Officer Atty. Alberto Nellas Jr. said they were found administratively liable for neglect of duty related to irregularities and delays in the remittances of cash advances, resulting in a P3 million loss for Mambukal.
Decena claimed that there were a series of harassment against the employees who worked honestly inside the capitol, which was denied by Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.
The suspended Capitol employees also cried foul over the fact that the data used in the case against them was based on an initial, and thus incomplete report. Long time efforts to request for a copy of the final report have fallen on deaf ears, they claimed.
There was no harassment intended, and all cases went through the process, the governor maintained.
Lacson even suggested that it is better for them to directly file their Motion for Reconsideration (MR) directly to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for a more objective and legal process.*
