Former Dumanjug town mayor, Efren “Gungun” Gica, may have a chance to return as the local chief executive of this southwestern Cebu town.
This developed after the Court of Appeals (CA) reversed the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss Gica from public office after he was found guilty of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct for allegedly falsifying a liquidation report.
A copy of the decision from the appellate court obtained by Cebu Daily News showed that Associate Justice Marilyn Lagura – Yap ruled in favor of Gica’s petition contesting the Ombudsman’s decision to dismiss him from office. The appelate court’s decision was released last July 27.
“Petitioner may not be held administratively accountable for the misconduct he allegedly committed during his previous term as Vice Mayor of Dumanjug. This is so because he was subsequently re-elected as Mayor of Dumanjug,” the decision stated.
Gica was barred from public service by the state’s anti-graft body last November 2017 after the Ombudsman found him guilty of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct.
The Ombudsman’s decision against Gica stemmed from a complaint filed by Gica’s political rival, former Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia.
In his complaint, Garcia accused Gica of tampering restaurant receipts to look like he allegedly spent over P21,000 worth u public funds instead of only P11,000 for a seminar with barangay officials in a Chinese restaurant in Cebu City.
The town’s current mayor is Rene Asentista, who was the town’s vice mayor when then Mayor Gica was barred from holding public office in November 2017.
In January this year, Asentista was ordered by the Department of Interior and Local Government to assume as the town mayor to prevent a leadership vacuum.