Canet d'en Berenguer mayor tells Guardia Civil he did not know of Supreme Court ruling
Canet d'en Berenguer's mayor (Camp de Morvedre district) testified to the Guardia Civil over the Government sub-delegate's promotion. A court in Sagunto is running the case.
Pere Antoni Chordà (PSPV), mayor of Canet d'en Berenguer, has given evidence to the Guardia Civil (Spain's national gendarmerie) in the investigation into the promotion of José Rodríguez Jurado, now the central government's sub-delegate in Valencia, from civil-service subgroup C1 to A1 at the town hall. He told the officers he did not know of a Supreme Court ruling that bars this kind of internal promotion when it skips subgroup A2. Las Provincias reported the content of the appearance on Wednesday 21 October 2026, and sources in the municipal government have confirmed it to El Periódico de Aquí.
According to Las Provincias, Chordà attended as a person under investigation (investigado) in proceedings the Guardia Civil carried out on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, when the matter was not yet in a judge's hands. The municipal government stresses that he went voluntarily and maintains that the procedure complied with the law. The officers wanted to know how a post in A1, the top rung of the civil service, was reached, and mentioned the Supreme Court's case law. His answer, as reported by the paper: «I was not aware of it.»
The call for applications was another point of the questioning: Rodríguez Jurado was the only candidate, although other town hall employees could apply. The mayor maintained that the post was open to other town hall employees and none decided to apply, a version municipal sources also relay. He added that the town hall secretary handled the file, which is usual in councils, according to Las Provincias. Asked how many similar promotions had taken place since 2021, he acknowledged, again per that paper, that the current sub-delegate's was the only one.
The town hall says documents were handed over at the appearance that would back its position: a resolution by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) from June 2024 which, in the view of municipal sources, deems lawful a per saltum promotion in Gandía and is in every way equivalent to the one in Canet d'en Berenguer. That is the argument the local government uses to defend the promotion of the man later named sub-delegate.
The governing team also complains about how the investigation is leaking. Municipal sources say they learn of developments from newspapers before official channels, which, they say, leaves them defenceless because they do not know what they must defend themselves against. Even so, they speak of «maximum» calm at the town hall and of a case that, in their view, has no legal future.
The origin is an internal promotion call approved in 2022, through which Rodríguez Jurado moved from an administrative post in C1 to one in A1. Doubts have persisted since then about how it fits civil-service rules and Supreme Court case law. The alleged irregularities reached the courts of Sagunto through a criminal complaint raising possible offences of administrative prevarication (knowingly unlawful official decisions) and illegal appointment, and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office stepped in after seeing possible signs of crime. On 15 October 2026, esdiario.com, citing Fiscalía sources via Europa Press, reported that Anticorrupción had filed a complaint in court against the sub-delegate over that promotion; no court has confirmed those suspicions and the sub-delegate himself called the reports false. The same outlet added that Anticorrupción had already opened proceedings in March 2026 and that prosecutors saw signs of an offence.
Separately, Canet has a different matter open with the Guardia Civil. At the 2 October plenary session the same mayor said talks were advancing to set up a permanent barracks in the former Hogar del Jubilado (retirees' centre), as El Periódico de Aquí reported on 7 October.
The case is now before the courts. The High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has confirmed that it is being investigated by court number 2 of the Civil and Investigating Section of the Tribunal de Instancia of Sagunto. According to Las Provincias, the court had not yet ordered further steps because it is studying the large volume of documents in the prosecutors' complaint, which includes the mayor's statement. The court must decide whether the promotion respected the law and whether criminal liability arises from it. Opening proceedings does not prove that the alleged offences were committed, and the town hall expects the matter to be shelved.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with information from Las Provincias. Complementary data: esdiario.com.