Commissioners of the National Commission of Senior Citizens have unanimously endorsed the designation of Commissioner Dr. Mary Jane Loreche as officer-in-charge of the agency.

In a resolution transmitted to the Office of the President, four NCSC commissioners nominated Loreche as the NCSC OIC while embattled Chairman Franklin Quijano is serving a three-month preventive suspension in connection with administrative charges filed against him by a certain Jose Francisco Tapia.

Loreche used to be the chief pathologist of the Department of Health Central Visayas and had been appointed chief of the Cebu City Medical Center before her appointment to the NCSC.

Widely commended for taking a lead role in the fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, Loreche has earned the full trust and confidence of her colleagues in the NCSC.

Meanwhile, Quijano has vehemently denied charges aired against him by Tapia and his NCSC colleagues, hinting that politics could be the motivation behind the ouster moves.

Except for revealing that Tapia filed charges of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct against Quijano, Malacañang has not released other details of the case.

The suspension order came a few days after NCSC commissioners called for Quijano’s resignation as they accused him of mismanaging the agency tasked to address concerns of the country’s 12 million senior citizens.

Signing a manifesto that assailed Quijano’s leadership were Commissioners Rainier Cruz, Enriqueta Rodeles, Edwin Espejo, Reymar Mansilungan and Loreche.

Despite this, the commissioners have maintained that they are not privy to the filing of the administrative complaint.

“Notwithstanding the recent call of majority of the Commissioners for his (Quijano”s) resignation due to management and leadership issues, we wish to express that the suspension was a product of an administrative case filed against him by a certain Jose Francisco Tapia,” they said in a joint statement.

The commissioners added: “The Commission hnopoes the suspension will provide the opportunity for Atty. Quijano to defend and clear his name even as we would like to assure our 12 million Senior Citizen constituents that the NCSC remains steadfast in the full implementation of the mandate provided in RA 11350 the NCSC Act.”

In reaction to calls for his resignation, Quijano urged fellow NCSC officials to distance from politics.

“We are a service agency. We are not political, nor is this a government office that is involved in partisanship. We must not be dragged by the different and often conflicting political agenda of different personalities and organizations,” he said.

Quijano further stated: “This should be the hallmark of NCSC’s work, to serve and not be involved nor dragged in partisan initiatives. This is imperative.”

“To be otherwise is to involve ourselves in partisan activities,

and this is something that is out and out deplorable,” the former Iligan City mayor said.