Abra’s temporary vice governor has been put in the seat after the national government finalized the 18-month suspension of elected Vice Governor Joy Valera-Bernos.
Abra Provincial Council member Russel Bragas has been appointed by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as acting vice governor, replacing Valera-Bernos, and will serve as such during Valera-Bernos’s 18-month suspension from public office.
Valera-Bernos was suspended by Malacañang over the unlawful closure of an Abra hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the decision from the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs (DESLA) of the Office of the President, Valera-Bernos was suspended for oppression and abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming of a public official, and disobedience to national government policies.
The charges stemmed from when Valera-Bernos, governor of Abra during the pandemic, ordered a full lockdown of the said hospital in June of 2020 when a nurse caught COVID-19, including barricading the hospital and placing the entire village under extreme enhanced community quarantine.
According to the complaint against Valera-Bernos, not only did she order the lockdown without basis, she also did so in violation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) guidelines. The complaint also claimed that the lockdown, in addition to being premature and in violation of guidelines, was done without the approval of the Cordillera IATF.
Following the investigations of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the DESLA meted out an 18-month temporary suspension to the vice governor.
Valera-Bernos has, in her response statement, emphasized that the charges against her were dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman and blamed the suspension on politically motivated attacks on her reputation.
