Vice mayor takes over as Albuera, Leyte’s chief executive

ORMOC CITY, Leyte, Aug. 6 (PNA) – With the absence of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, Sr. the town’s Vice Mayor Rosa Meneses assumed the post as the town's chief executive on Friday, according to a local official.

Municipal administrator Bobbins Meneses said that as per instruction of Ida Lopez of the local Department of Interior and Local Government, the vice mayor temporarily took over the post after few days of Espinosa’s absence.

This was based on section 46 of Local Government Code, which stated that “when a municipal mayor is temporarily incapacitated to perform his duties for physical or legal reasons such as, but not limited to, leave of absence, travel abroad, and suspension from office, the municipal vice-mayor, or the highest ranking sangguniang barangay member shall automatically exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the local chief executive concerned…”

On Aug. 2 Espinosa issued an order designating first councilor Sixto de la Victoria to dispense the tasks as officer-in-charge until his return, however the latter declined, according to the administrator.

This prompted the administrator to provisionally handle the day-to-day instructions until the vice mayor assumed this Friday.

He said the transition was peaceful and the local operations went back to normal. The vice mayor is an ally of the former mayor, who lost to Espinosa during the May 2016 elections

Espinosa is still at Camp Crame after his surrender, apparently driven by fear of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “shoot-on-sight” order for him and alleged drug lord son, Kerwin, who is still at large. (PNA)

SQM/ELVIE ROMAN ROA/egr