The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is set to enforce on Tuesday the six-month preventive suspension imposed by the Office of the Ombudsman on San Pablo City, Laguna Mayor Arcadio “Najie” Gapangada Jr.
DILG Calabarzon Regional Director Ariel Iglesia confirmed that his office had received the suspension order and would formally serve it on the mayor.
Vice Mayor Justin Colago is also scheduled to take his oath as acting mayor of San Pablo City.
The Ombudsman ordered Gapangada’s preventive suspension in connection with administrative charges of grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and oppression.
The charges arose from a complaint filed by Colago on June 26, 2026, accusing Gapangada of removing career and plantilla officials from their functions, reassigning or sidelining them and allegedly replacing them with job order employees in key city offices.
Some of the job order workers were reportedly receiving salaries of up to P100,000 per month.
Gapangada denied the allegations and maintained that he had been deprived of due process, claiming that he was never informed that a complaint had been filed against him before the Ombudsman.
The mayor also questioned the speed of the Ombudsman’s action, pointing out that the complaint was filed on June 26 while the suspension order was issued on July 3.
Gapangada further said that his own complaint against Colago, filed on April 26, 2026, over the alleged hiring of more than 200 ghost employees, had yet to receive any action from the Ombudsman.
He said he would file a motion for reconsideration before the Office of the Ombudsman and seek a temporary restraining order from the courts to stop the implementation of the suspension.
Gapangada also appealed to his fellow members of Mayors for Good Governance to support him in what he described as his fight for justice.
Meanwhile, hundreds of the mayor’s supporters gathered outside San Pablo City Hall on Monday to protest the Ombudsman’s decision, insisting that Gapangada had been leading the city’s anti-corruption campaign.