Aside from filing formal complaints, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is eyeing to disbar Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
Osmeña made this announcement barely a day after published reports stated that he will file complaints against Aguirre for allegedly participating in the cases he filed against SM and Banco de Oro.
“I’m going to push for the disbarment of Aguirre. The country is better off without him. But we’re still going to study on how to do it. He’s breaking a culture here. He likes to forgive people. He’s very forgiving,” said Osmeña.
Aguirre received the ire of the incumbent local chief executive of Cebu City for allegedly meddling and dismissing the complaints on tax evasion and underdeclaration the latter filed against SM, one of the country’s largest property firms, and its banking firm, BDO.
On his Facebook page, Osmeña posted a lengthy comment accusing Aguirre to have been bribed by BDO.
“BDO, during the administration of Michael Rama, saw fit to pay only 35 pesos for the entire year of 2015. The savings they made from such a vulgar under-declaration went on to pay for DOJ’s outright DISMISSAL of all the cases the Cebu City Government filed to recover the proper taxes. How do I know DOJ was paid? Because I was offered money to drop the charges too,” the mayor stated.
A two-page resolution from the DOJ, signed by Aguirre himself and dated June 15, 2017, was only released to the media on March 19.
It ordered the Cebu City Prosecutors Office for its assistant prosecutor, Zenamar Machacon – Caparros, to inhibit and cease from conducting the preliminary investigation of the cases filed against the Sy Group of Companies.