Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso is facing graft and administrative complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged “illegal installation” of a new Liga ng mga Barangay president, which resulted in the ouster of Leilani Lacuna, sister of former Mayor Honey Lacuna.
Leilani Lacuna accused Domagoso of corruption and usurpation of authority. Vice Mayor Chi Atienza and 13 other local officials were also named respondents.
She filed administrative complaints for grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority, claiming incidents that “indubitably point to a concerted action and conspiracy to invalidate my election and holding of Office as LIGA President and remove me from office causing me undue injury by depriving me of salaries and benefits to which I am legally entitled.”
“Worse, the actuations of all respondents were done with manifest partiality, evident bad faith, and inexcusable negligence,” Lacuna added.
Ahead of the Ombudsman filing, Lacuna and five other barangay chairpersons sought the Manila Regional Trial Court to reverse their removal from the village league and Lacuna’s removal from the city council as ex-officio member.
“The motive is political vendetta, a bid for total domination of Manila in order to seize control of barangay budgets,” she said.
The Manila public information office responded that Domagoso has yet to receive a copy of the complaint. It defended the special elections, citing the participation of 844 out of 896 barangay chairpersons as a “historic turnout.”
“To claim that this overwhelming majority were intimidated into participating in a duly constituted process to elect new officers of the Liga ng mga Barangay is an insult to their intelligence. Mere allegations are not synonymous with truth,” the statement said.
During the November 10 elections, Councilor Enriqueta Platon received 844 votes to become the Liga president, and the new officers took oath before Domagoso the following day.