The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will be studying sanctions against local officials who traveled abroad despite a ban on foreign trips amid Typhoons Tino and Uwan (international names: Kalmaegi and Fung-wong).
Around 20 local officials were out of the country despite the cancellation of leaves from around 40 of them as the successive cyclones battered parts of the nation, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla in an interview on ANC’s Headstart on Monday.
‘I called for a meeting with my undersecretaries in local government and external, legal, and legislative affairs now to study the implications of all these matters because many local government officials were not here now that they have been barred from leaving,’ he said in Filipino.
The DILG chief did not immediately name the local officials who left the country.
Isabela governor
However, Remulla was asked about Isabela Gov. Rodolfo Albano III, who recently caught flak from social media users after he told residents to ‘chill’ in a radio interview ahead of Uwan’s landfall.
According to the DILG chief, he last spoke with Albano last Saturday, saying the Isabela governor was in Germany for an annual agricultural trade fair and that he promised to get the first available flight home.
‘We have sanctioning powers for him. We can recommend disciplinary measures,’ Remulla said in Filipino.
The DILG Cagayan Valley previously said Albano’s official travel leave had been filed and approved weeks before Uwan’s onset.
However, last Saturday, the department’s central office ordered all elective and appointive local officials to suspend their foreign travels from Nov. 9 to 15.
The DILG cited the Local Government Code and the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, which both task local chief executives to be ‘physically present during all phases of disaster management.’