By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Following his dismissal by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), last week, along with seven other officials on the grounds of grave misconduct, Valladolid Vice Mayor Romel Yogore insisted “politics was behind my dismissal.”
“My political enemies, who were not successful in unseating me through fair elections, wanted me out by filing cases against me,” he explained.
The case stemmed from the awarding of a P649,140 contract and the purchase of P300,000 rice seeds when he was mayor in 2009, which allegedly did not undergo the proper bidding process.
Yogore, along with Valladolid Agriculture Officer Giovanni Robles, Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) members Joseph Alfonso Manayon, Ernesto Genobis, Daisy Galve, Cherryl Aquirre, Merlene Magbanua, and Ramonito Amazona were all recently dismissed, a punishment the ousted vice mayor called “too severe.”
His lawyer has since filed a motion for reconsideration with the Office of the Ombudsman and a petition for injunction with the Court of Appeals.
Top municipal councilor Octavio Pagsubiron has since been sworn into office as vice mayor by Valladolid Mayor Enrique Miravalles./WDJ