THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced that unless the dismissal order against suspended Dumanjug Mayor Efren “Gungun” Gica is declared final by the Supreme Court (SC), the southwestern town will only continue to have an acting mayor.
In a press conference on Thursday, DILG–Cebu supervisor Jerome Gonzales told reporters that Vice Mayor Rene Asentista will remain only in an acting capacity as mayor.
“He (Gica) will contest the Ombudsman’s decision. Unless it will be made final, his vice mayor (Asentista) will continue to assume as acting mayor. So, there’s no changes at all,” said Gonzales, referring to recent developments of the anti-graft case filed against Gica by Nelson Garcia, a former mayor of Dumanjug.
Gica earlier vowed to appeal the dismissal order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman before the Supreme Court anytime soon.
Gica was ordered dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly falsifying his liquidation report and other supporting documents to conceal the misappropriation of P10,000 in public funds.
Along with his dismissal from service, the anti-graft office also ordered his perpetual disqualification to hold public office, the cancellation of all his civil service eligibility and the forfeiture of all his benefits.
The decision, dated July 27 and approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on Oct. 12, 2017, was received by Gica last week or about nine months after the anti-graft office ordered his dismissal from the service in February over the same offense.
On the part of DILG, Gonzales said they had yet to receive a copy of the order.
“Once we receive and serve it, all the functions of the mayor will be transferred to Asentista,” said Gonzales.
But for “formality’s sake,” Asentista may take his oath as acting mayor once the dismissal order is served on Gica by DILG, Gonzales added.
Asentista has been the acting mayor of Dumanjug, a third-class municipality located 81 kilometers southwest of Cebu City, since July following a preventive suspension on Gica and his brother, Dumanjug Councilor Edwin Gica, ordered by the Ombudsman Visayas.
Asentista ran with Gica in the May 2016 national elections under the Liberal Party (LP).
Following his dismissal last February, Gica was reinstated in March after the Ombudsman gave weight to the mayor’s contention that he was not given a chance to answer the allegations against him.
Barely three months after he was reinstated, Gica was again suspended for one year over a different case — for leading a police raid in the absence of a search warrant.
It was while serving this preventive suspension meted that Gica received the second dismissal order from the anti-graft office.
“Technically, Asentista is still the vice mayor and remember, that the elected mayor is placed only under preventive suspension for one year so there’s no permanent vacancy in the mayor’s post,” said DILG’s Gonzales.
Gica’s father and lawyer, Edgar Gica, wanted the Ombudsman to clarify if the recent decision was a new one or related to the first decision since nothing in the document discussed a motion for reconsideration which they filed in the anti-graft office for the February decision.