Rodriguez mayor’s arraignment on sedition raps set

10/27/2008

The Regional Trial Court (RTC) in San Mateo, Rizal is set to arraign Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) Mayor Pedro Cuerpo and five other local officials facing charges of sedition for forcibly taking over the municipal hall last March.

Judge Manuel Taro of the San Mateo RTC Branch 75 set the arraignment on Oct. 28 at the San Mateo Fourth Judicial Region.

Cuerpo and five other municipal officials are out on bail on sedition charges in connection with their takeover of the town hall following Cuerpo’s short-lived suspension in March. Cuerpo posted bail of P8,000 while his co-accused paid their bonds separately.

Cuerpo and the Rizal provincial board have been at loggerheads over the proceeds of tipping and other fees collected from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority for the use of the town’s sanitary landfill.

Last March, the provincial council suspended Cuerpo for insisting on collecting the tipping fees even though the court that was hearing the dispute had not yet ruled in favor of Rizal province or Rodriguez town.

Cuerpo, with several supporters, then holed up in the town hall and refused to leave, prompting Vice Mayor Jonas Cruz, who became acting mayor, to manage the municipality’s affairs in another building in the local government compound. Jason Faustino

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