SEVEN INDICTED

A security guard inspects city-owned vehicles impounded near Sugbo building at the South Road Properties after these were ordered recalled last year from the different barangays by then acting mayor Margot Osmeña.
CDN FILE PHOTO

Cebu City barangay captains who initially refused to return  vehicles face criminal charges

For failing to heed an order last May to return city-issued vehicles for an inventory, seven Cebu City barangay captains, allied with Team Rama, are now facing criminal charges before the court.

The simple Team Rama versus Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) post-election issue on whether or not to obey an order of then acting mayor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña (BO-PK) to return the vehicles has veered onto a new road that may now involve a complex legal battle.

The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office indicted barangay captains Ramil Ayuman (Apas), Philip Zafra (Tisa), Lemar Alcover (Sambag 1), Ana Tabal (Tagbao), Rosalita Callino (Buot), Yolandito Cagang (Basak Pardo) and Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, former barangay captain of Tinago, for violation of Article 221 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

A P6,000 bail was recommended for each. Cagang voluntarily posted bail yesterday, sources said.

The criminal case filed on Tuesday before the Metropolitan Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) came five months after Cebu City Prosecutor II Benison Harayo found probable cause to hold the officials liable for violation of Article 221 in a resolution dated September 29, 2016.

Article 221 states that any public officer who fails to pay government funds in his possession or refuses to deliver any property in his custody or under his administration shall be punished by arresto mayor and a fine from five to 25 percent of the sum which he failed to pay.

“It must be noted that respondents did not immediately deliver or turn-over the vehicle/vehicles issued to them to the GSO (General Services Office), instead, they just waited until any personnel from GSO or city hall will arrive and get the vehicle,” read the resolution signed by Harayo, Reviewing Officer Rodulph Joseph Val Carrillo and City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas.

Copies of the resolution were served on the respondents Wednesday, setting off a firestorm of emotions from Barangay Capt. Ayuman, who only last month filed an administrative case against the mayor and his wife, Margot, before the Office of the President for grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, culpable violation of the Constitution and violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees over the reopening of the controversial Inayawan landfill last year.

(Below are the seven Cebu City barangay captains who initially refused to return their city-issued vehicles last year and are now facing criminal charges)

Revenge?

In a press conference, Ayuman claimed to see the unseen hands of retribution from the mayor for the “sudden” filing of the case in court against him and the six others.

Ayuman claimed Mayor Tomas Osmeña may have influenced the prosecutor’s office to file the case against them in court as prosecutors receive allowances from the city government amounting to at least P10,000 a month per fiscal. (CDN tried to reach City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas for comment but texts remained unanswered)

It was eight months ago, in June 2016, when Margot, then the acting mayor, filed a complaint before the prosecutor’s office against barangay captains over their refusal to return vehicles, mostly SUVs assigned to them, for inventory.

“Mayor Tomas Osmeña has a new nickname, I call him Mayor Tom Bully. He bullies businesses, all the more the barangay captains. He’s going after us until we are put in jail,” said Ayuman.

Reacting to the development, Osmeña said in a Facebook post that the indictment was simply a consequence of the public officials’ belief that government property was their own.

“(This is) what happens when you think Government Property = Your Property. Even Margot and I use our own personal vehicles. We also pay for our own fuel, even when on official business. Too hard for Team Rama to understand maybe?” Osmeña said.

There were at least 42 village chiefs who initially refused to return their vehicles; but later relented, submitting to Osmeña’s order.

Ayuman, Zafra, Alcover, Tabal, Callino, Cagang and Garganera were among the last ones to return their service vehicles.

“It’s not like we didn’t return it. We turned it over but we want to emphasize that the purpose of the memorandum was for inventory. After how many months, I don’t know what’s taking the inventory so long,” Zafra, who is also the president of the Cebu City Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said in Cebuano.

Zafra said the matter has been raised before their respective legal counsels.

Zafra also pointed out that Margot’s series of memoranda were issued only in her acting capacity as mayor following the suspensions of then mayor Michael Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 city councilors.

Proper receipts

The seven barangay captains earlier submitted separate answers to the complaint.

Zafra, Cagang, Tabal and Callino said that they advised the city’s GSO that their vehicles can be taken anytime, provided that proper receipts were issued to them by GSO.

Ayuman and Alcover, for their part, pointed out that they had sent a letter to Margot, along with other barangay captains, asking for clarification on whether the vehicles issued directly to barangay captains were included in the inventory.

Ayuman and Alcover also reasoned that the vehicles were always ready in case authorized GSO personnel would come to take them. They said their respective barangay secretaries were instructed to release the vehicles as long as a proper receipt was given by GSO.

When no one from the GSO came to the barangay to pick up the vehicles, Ayuman and Alcover said they later ordered their drivers to return them to GSO.

Garganera, said that he was out of the country when the Tinago barangay secretary received Osmeña’s memorandum; but he instructed the secretary to release the vehicle to GSO personnel provided that a receipt was issued.

Returned and delivered

“For us, the vehicles have been returned. And now the case is failure to make delivery, nga dugay naman ni nauli (it has long been returned),” Garganera said, laughing.

Garganera said that the vehicles were provided to them through a budget ordinance appropriating P80 million for vehicles to be given to each of the city’s 80 barangays.

The former barangay captain pointed out that until now, the vehicles have not been returned to the barangays even if the purpose of the recall was just for inventory.

Sought for comment, Basak Pardo Barangay Capt. Cagang said he was dismayed by the filing of a criminal charge against them.

“Tinarong raman ni ato nga pagserbisyo sa barangay. Ngano gud failure to return nga tua na man didto ang sakyanan?” Cagang said.

(We are just trying to serve the barangay properly. Why would they say there’s failure to return when the vehicles are already there?)

“That’s how politics works. That will still be reviewed by the judges, there is still a possibility that the warrant of arrest will not be issued. I am not surprised, this is Tomas’ way of going after barangays,” Sambag 1 Barangay Capt. Alcover, for his part, said in Cebuano.

Cebu Daily News tried to get the comments of barangay captains Tabal and Callino, but repeated calls and texts remained unanswered.

Mayor Michael Rama described the development as another case of “political persecution, harassment and intimidation” by Osmeña and offered to help the barangay captains.

“It’s just sad a thing like that should happen to our barangay captains. . . . We are not going to abandon and we will always be there side by side,” Rama said.