POZORRUBIO, Pangasinan—Courtesy of a flip-flopping decision by the Office of the Ombudsman, Filipino-Chinese businessman Artemio Chan who had been mayor of this town for 17 years may get back to his post soon, or within the next six months.
Late-October last year, the axe fell on Chan when the Ombudsman dismissed him from public office, all his government pension and other social security benefits forfeited, and was barred forever from running for any public office.
His crime? Chan had affixed his signature as the solemnizing officer of a wedding which was actually officiated by his proxy, an ordinary employee of the local government unit.
For it, the anti-graft body found him “guilty of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty.”
The dismissal order “perpetually disqualified” Chan from holding public office, forfeited his retirement benefits, canceled his civil-service eligibility and even barred him from taking any civil-service examination.
Last February 9, 2018, however, when the regional office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government served the Ombudsman order, Chan’s penalty was reduced to a mere six-month suspension from office.
Visited recently by the BusinessMirror and two other local journalists at his home infront of the town’s public market, the “ousted” mayor was in high spirits, saying the penalty reduction was “God’s will.”
He had peacefully accepted the Ombudsman’s decision of his outright dismissal last year, refusing to issue any statement to the media except “I will lift up the situation to God.”