Dumanjug vice mayor to take over seat of power

DUMANJUG Vice Mayor Efren Guntrano Gica expects a smooth transition when he assumes office as acting mayor today, following suspended Mayor Nelson Garcia’s vow to step aside and “take a vacation” from office.

In a phone interview yesterday, Gica said a number of town workers, including Garcia’s loyal supporters, approached him Friday to express support for his two-month stint as acting mayor.

For Gica, Garcia’s statements to media about his 60-day preventive suspension ordered by Gov. Hilario Davide III did not indicate possible resistance from the mayor.

“There have been no threats or rumors of a possible resistance. No information has reached me that the mayor will resist the suspension although I won’t be surprised if that will happen,” he told Cebu Daily News.

No police authorities or additional security will be deployed in Dumanjug today, said Gica, who told the police not to allow Garcia to take documents out of his office. The documents could be useful in the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) committee on complaints and investigation’s ongoing probe in relation to the criminal and administrative cases he filed against Garcia for usurpation of authority.

Garcia is free to enter the municipal hall, said Gica.

“Essentially, he is still the mayor. He’s just suspended temporarily. Aside from that, he is a resident of Dumanjug so he can go inside the town hall because that is a public office,” he said.
Garcia was not in the Dumanjug town hall when Provincial Legal Officer Orvi Ortega served the suspension order last Friday.

The mayor’s personal secretary refused to receive a copy of the order.

The suspension order takes effect “upon receipt” and directed Garcia to cease and desist from performing the duties of his office for 60 days.

In an interview, Garcia said he will not follow the example of her older sister, former governor Gwendolyn Garcia, who holed herself up in the Capitol in defiance of a six months suspension from the Office of the President.

Gwen had remained inside her office until January 2013 when she went to Oslob to inaugurate the briefing center of the Oslob Whale Shark Watching program. Then acting governor Agnes Magpale immediately padlocked the office of the governor to keep Gwen out.

The committee headed by Board Member Arleigh Sitoy recommended the mayor’s preventive suspension, saying there was a risk that he would intimidate or threaten witnesses while he’s in office.

The committee reasoned that the suspension is fitting since “the issues are joined, evidence of guilt is strong.