CAGUIO CITY — Governor Aurelio Umali of Nueva Ecija has denied corruption allegations surrounding the issuance of 205 quarrying permits without the necessary Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), calling the complaint “made-up.”
The Office of the Ombudsman issued a one-year suspension—a marked escalation from a previous six-month preventive suspension—and found “substantial evidence” pointing to “conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service” and “simple misconduct.”
Umali maintains that the case is administrative in nature, questioning its legal basis in his implementation of permit issuance.