Dumanjug Mayor Efren Gica. CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Usurpation of authority charges have been lodged against the mayor of Dumanjug town in Cebu for officiating civil marriages in his town from August to December last year while the legality of his reassumption as town mayor is still being questioned in court.
The criminal and administrative complaints against Dumanjug Mayor Efren Guntrano “Gungun” Gica were lodged before the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday, February 8, by the town’s former mayor, Nelson Garcia, who is running as representative for Cebu’s seventh congressional district in the midterm elections in May.
Garcia, in his complaint, alleged that Gica “feloniously and unlawfully under pretense of official position solemnized 17 marriages in the Municipality of Dumanjug without any authority or [being] lawfully entitled to do so,” adding that such acts constituted “17 counts of usurpation in violation of Article 117 of the Revised Penal Code.”
Gica was ordered dismissed by then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales in July 2017 for allegedly tampering a restaurant receipt resulting to a discrepancy of P10,000.
Gica appealed his case to the Court of Appeals, which, in turn, resolved in July 2018 to reverse and set aside the decision of the Ombudsman. This prompted Gica to reclaim his seat as town mayor in August 2018 despite not having secured a reinstatement order from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
In December last year, the DILG issued a memorandum directing Gica vacate the mayor’s office since there was a pending petition for review filed by the Ombudsman in the CA over his case.
In a message reply sent to CDN Digital on Sunday, Gica maintained that his reassumption to office last August was valid and that Garcia’s claims are “misleading.”
“The SC (Supreme Court) also said that the CA ‘has a concomitant responsibility to ensure that, in case of exoneration, such a decision must perforce be immediately executory, notwithstanding an appeal that may be lodged by the Ombudsman with the Court,” Gica said.
Garcia, on the other hand, also claimed that by assuming his post as town mayor without a reinstatement order from the DILG, Gica should be administratively liable for grave misconduct, dishonesty, grave abuse of authority, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the public, fraud against government, and conduct unbecoming of a public officer.
Gica is seeking reelection in the May 2019 polls under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) while Garcia is running for the seventh district’s congressional seat under the administration party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
Gica’s opponent for the mayoral seat is Garcia’s partymate, Cesar Baricuatro, also of PDP-Laban. /elb
(Editor’s Note. This story has been updated to reflect a correction. Nelson Garcia is not running for mayor of Dumajug as first reported in this article. He is a candidate for representative in the seventh congressional district of Cebu province. The candidate for mayor running against Gica is Cesar Baricuatro. )