Sonny to serve last four months of suspension
Toledo City Mayor John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña should serve the last four months of his one-year preventive suspension within this week.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Cebu Province Director Jerome Gonzales said that they already received an order from their central office to implement the suspension order meted by the Ombudsman against Osmeña.
Gonzales clarified that what he received is not a new suspension order against Osmeña.
“Wala may bagong suspension order. Ang among nadawat is sugo nga ipatiwas ang naputol nga na serve,” said Gonzales.
(There is no new suspension order. What we received is an order for Osmeña to serve the remaining four months of his one year suspension.)
Gonzales said that he received the order from the DILG-Central Office last week.
Osmeña’s legal counsel, Inocencio dela Cerna said the order to let his client serve the rest of his one-year suspension is irregular.
“The Ombudsman made the decision to continue the implementation of the suspension only upon a letter of inquiry from Vice Mayor (Antonio) Yapha. So there are irregularities in that implementation,” dela Cerna told Cebu Daily News.
The Ombudsman had found Osmeña guilty of grave abuse of authority for his refusal to release a barangay’s tax shares and meted him a one-year suspension. Upon appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the Ombudsman’s decision, citing the Aguinaldo Condonation doctrine, saying that the offense was committed before the Supreme Court abandoned the Aguinaldo doctrine in November 2016.
Thus after serving eight months of the one-year suspension, Osmeña was able to reclaim his mayorship of Toledo City.
Dela Cerna however said they will comply with the order of the DILG for Osmeña to again vacate his post. He said they had learned about the DILG order last week and had agreed with the DILG for the order to be implemented today.
DILG Regional Director Gonzales said as soon as the suspension is implemented Vice Mayor Yapha will automatically assume as acting mayor.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
