Dumanjug mayor asks PB to junk admin plaint

DUMANJUG Mayor Nelson Garcia yesterday called on the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) to dismiss the administrative complaints filed against him by his vice mayor, Efren Guntrano Gica.
Garcia yesterday went to the provincial Capitol to attend a preliminary conference in connection with the Gica’s complaint. He was accompanied by his brother, Pablo John, who acted as his legal counsel.

Gica filed an administrative case against Garcia for allegedly appointing a secretary to the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) which he said is a power supposedly under the vice mayor.

The complaint stemmed from Garcia’s memorandum designating Emmylou Cabonilas to take over in an acting capacity the post that was vacated by Victor Tan Jr, who resigned last June 26.

According to Garcia, the granting of his motion to dismiss will ease the unnecessary burden on the part of the PB by resolving a “very malicious and political complaint.”

He also insisted that the motion be decided by all members of the PB since it was addressed to the legislative body en banc and not by the committee on complaints and investigation.

The committee is chaired by Board member Arleigh Sitoy.

“We have to resolve because the motion to dismiss was not addressed to the committee, it was addressed to the en banc, the whole Provincial Board,” he said.

“The Provincial Board should first decide on whether they will file my motion to dismiss or not but the committee took it as an answer,” he added.

According to Garcia, the committee could order a preventive suspension against him once they dismiss the motion he filed yesterday.

If that happens, he said he will file a separate case in court against Gica and will not “anymore participate in the committee hearing.”

“When they filed a case against me, we filed a motion to dismiss but they took it as an answer. They said my motion to dismiss was an answer so all issues are already joined, they already have the right to suspend me which is wrong,” he said.

“I hope that I will have justice in this preliminary conference and if they still insist that they’ll go ahead with the recommendation for my suspension, we will not participate anymore in this hearing and we will go to court after this,” he added.