Ombudsman orders suspension of Aklan mayor for immorality

The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the suspension of an Aklan mayor for six months over immorality.

Found guilty of Disgraceful and Immoral Conduct was Altavas, Aklan Mayor Denny Refol following a fact-finding investigation conducted by the Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office of the Ombudsman Visayas.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Refol had an illicit relationship and a child with another woman despite being married.

A certificate of live birth showed that Refol was the father and that he acknowledged paternity of the child who was born in 2007.

“[T]he relationship gained public knowledge in the municipality because respondent publicly displayed the same," the National Bureau of Investigation in Western Visayas Regional Office.

For his part, Refol said that “at present, there are only a few public officials who have no mistresses.”

He also maintained that he no longer sees the other woman, thus making the complaint moot and academic.

But the Ombudsman, in its decision, said “the respondent has not denied the relationship despite the subsistence of his marriage or the fact that he has fathered a child with the woman.”

The Ombudsman has already directed the Department of Interior and Local Government to implement the suspension. —NB, GMA News