Speaker won’t implement dismissal order vs Garcia as decision came late

GWEN GARCIA (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

CEBU CITY–Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will not implement the Ombudsman order to dismiss Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia in connection with the questionable purchase of the P98.9 million Balili property in Naga City, Cebu when she was governor in 2008.

In a press statement sent to Inquirer, Alvarez said the dismissal of Garcia was without Constitutional basis.

“The appropriate action is not to implement the order. Why? Because there is nothing in the Constitution that allows me to do that,” Alvarez said.

“In fact, it is not in the power of the Ombudsman to discipline much more to remove any member of the House of Representatives,” the Speaker said.

Alvarez pointed out that implementing the Ombudsman order would violate the Constitution that gave the House the sole power to discipline or even expel any of its members.

He cited Paragraph 3, Section 16 of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution which provides “Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its Members, suspend or expel a Member.”

Alvarez also said the dismissal order stemmed from an act when Garcia was governor and not as a congresswoman.

Baka late yung desisyon, late yung order. Dapat nilabas yung order nung siya ay isang gobernador pa lang (May be the decision came out late. The order should have been released when she was still governor),” Alvarez said.

However, Alvarez refused to comment on the claim of Garcia that the timing of the issuance of the order was suspect since it came at a time when she was actively involved in the impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

He said he didn’t care about the timing but on the legality of the order.

If there was no legal basis to do so under the Constitution, Alvarez said he would not implement the order.