Pangasinan town mayor slaps provincial videographer during tense issuance of 90-day suspension

BAGUIO CITY — Urdaneta City, Pangasinan Mayor Julio Parayno III is in double trouble after he reportedly slapped a provincial government-paid videographer Monday morning when his 90-day preventive suspension was being served him at his office.

Pangasinan police said Parayno was apparently irked when videographer Jairus Bien Sibayan, 28, a staff of the Pangasinan Information and Media Relation Office, kept on documenting the exchange of arguments between him and lawyer Ronn Dale Beltran Castillo, 31, Executive Assistant of Pangasinan Gov. Ramon Guico III, who was serving the town mayor’s suspension order.

Not content with slapping Sibayan’s right face, Parayno reportedly captured Sibayan’s camera and took its SD card.

Policemen pacified the commotion, brought Sibayan for medical examination at the Urdaneta District Hospital and then to the Urdaneta City police statio, accompanied by lawyer Castillo for investigation procedures prior to filing of formal charges.

Dhobie de Guzman, a former television journalist, who now heads the Provincial Information and Media Relation Office of Pangasinan condemned the act of Parayno III, insisting his staff was only performing a task given him as a documentor.   

Efforts to reach out to Parayno for his comment has remained futile.

90-day suspension 

Parayno’s 90-day suspension came after the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) found him violating the Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business law when he refused to issue a business permit to REVM Tiposu Poultry Farm Inc. in 2021.

The business entity’s representatives complained against Parayno and Urdaneta City’s Business Processing and Licensing Office head Ronaldo San Juan at the ARTA in 2021 questioning why the local government had refused their business license application despite complying with requirements.

The ARTA’s findings reached the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and on August 5 adopted the report of the Pangasinan SP Committee on Good Government endorsing Parayno’s suspension. 

Guico signed Parayno suspension order last August 8.