SCIENCE
CITY OF MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija, March 8, 2013–Vice Mayor Ester Lazaro has assumed
the mayorship of this city from Mayor Efren Alvarez whose motion for
reconsideration on a graft conviction has been denied with finality by a
division of the Supreme Court.
Lazaro took her oath of office as
mayor before Provincial Prosecutor Floro Florendo at the Sangguniang Panglunsod
Thursday.
Lazaro said a permanent vacancy in the
office of the mayor had come about which
has given her authority to sit mayor as stipulated in the Local Government
Code. She asked city residents to support her and set aside personal
differences.
Before her assumption, the Sangguniang
Panlunsod approved a resolution stating that due to a permanent vacancy in the
mayor’s office, Lazaro should assume the post to as not to affect the delivery
of services to city residents. This after the SP took cognizance of a second bench
warrant issued last February 15 by the Sandiganbayan’s fourth division which
prompted the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National
Police to carry out his arrest to no avail.
The issuance of a second bench warrant
was the offshoot of the issuance by the Supreme Court’s first division last
February 6 of a resolution denying with finality Alvarez’s motion for
reconsideration.
It
was the second time she assumed the post in four months. She also held the post
from November 5 to 28 last year after Alvarez went on a prolonged absence owing
to an earlier arrest warrant issued against him by the Sandiganbayan over a
P240-million graft case.
But Alvarez was reinstated on November 29
after his arrest warrant was lifted by the anti-graft court when he filed a
motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court. (Manny Galvez)
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