AFTER serving a 90-day preventive suspension ordered by the Sandiganbayan First Division, Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella returns to office on Sunday. With Puentevella’s return, the city’s proposed 2016 annual budget of P1.8 million is also expected to be approved in the coming week. His son, Councilor Claudio Jesus Puentevella, chair of the committee on finance and appropriation, is already set to submit his committee report to the City Council. The mayor had earlier said that once he returns to office he is keen on “restoring order and discipline in Bacolod.” Puentevella also said there will be a lot of reorganization and he will be “hands-on in the reforms, starting with the traffic condition of the city.” “You will see me on the streets again. Bacolod will be back to normal and we will put back what’s necessary on Valentine’s Day,” he said. Last November 16, Puentevella stepped down from office after he was ordered suspended over the graft case he is facing pertaining to the purchase of P26 million in computer packages for public schools when he was still a congressman of Bacolod. Vice Mayor Greg Gasataya took over as acting mayor while Council El Cid Familiaran assumed as acting vice mayor. Gasataya said that once he returns to his post as vice mayor, he will submit a certificate of compliance to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on his temporary assumption of Puentevella’s mayoral post. He added that his appointees will also step down from their current positions on February 14. Among his appointees are Acting City Legal Officer Juvy Dioso and Acting City Administrator Goldwyn Nifras as well as several executive assistants. The General Services Office (GSO) also asked Gasataya to turn over the properties he used during his three-month stint as acting mayor. GSO head Jerome Solinap said on Thursday that he instructed Building Administrator Victor Espina to conduct an inventory of the properties turned over to Gasataya when he assumed the post of Puentevella. On leave Familiaran took a five-day leave effective Friday to attend to some of his appointments. Familiaran, who will be back on February 16, was substituted by Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, being the second councilor with the highest votes. However, Familiaran said that Batapa-Sigue will take over the vice mayoral post only until noon of February 14 since Gasataya will return to his post on the same day. (with reports from CNC ) Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on February 14, 2016.
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