Garcia wants LP-allied PB panel members out of case against him

Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia Garcia has formally asked the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) to disqualify several legislators from handling the complaint filed against him by his vice mayor, Guntrano Gica.

Garcia said the PB should form a new panel to take over the case since members of the Committee on Complaints and Investigation have repeatedly showed their bias in favor of Gica.

The chairman, PB Member Arleigh Sitoy, and its five members all belong to the Liberal Party, where Gica is also a member.

“Even trial court judges voluntarily inhibit themselves from the case if they have the smallest of connections with the parties involved. How much more in this where they are very partisan? I cannot expect justice from this anymore,” Garcia told Cebu Daily News.

Garcia earlier asked the PB to reverse its recommendation to place him under 60-day preventive suspension.

The mayor, younger brother for former governor Gwendolyn Garcia, was accused of usurpation and abuse of power after designating a municipal secretary for the town council, a power supposedly under the vice mayor.

Garcia said the mere fact that the members of the committee is facing a separate administrative and criminal complaint which he filed before the Office of the Ombudsman is “sufficient reason” for them to let go of the case.

Charges of abuse of authority and series misconduct in office for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act are pending against Sitoy and committee members before the Ombudsman for their failure to act on the case filed by Garcia against Gica before the PB.