Malacañang orders Cebu City officials to answer complaint questioning P84.5M calamity assistance to City Hall staff
Did Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the city’s top elective officials abused their authority when they approved the distribution of P20,000 as calamity relief aid to City Hall employees?
This is what Malacanang wants to find out as it took cognizance of an administrative complaint filed by a Cebu-based lawyer against the officials.
Aside from Rama, included in the complaint were Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 city councilors who approved the distribution of the calamity assistance.
Among the councilors included as respondents were: Nestor Archival Sr., Mary Ann delos Santos, David Tumulak, Nendell Hanz Abella, Sisinio Andales, Alvin Arcilla, Roberto Cabarrubias, Ma. Nida Cabrera, Gerardo Carillo, Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr., and Noel Wenceslao.
Rama as well as the city officials also benefited from the relief assistance as they were among the beneficiaries of the cash dole, the complaint said.
Councilors Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, Lea Japson, James Anthony Cuenco and Richard Osmena were not included in the complaint. Margot, wife of former mayor Osmena, and Japson abstained from voting on the P140 million Supplemental Budget of which P84 million was appropriated for calamity assistance to City Hall’s 4,200 employees as well as elected officials.
Cuenco was out of the country when the budget resolution was passed last December while Richard Osmena was absent in the session.The Office of the President received the complaint filed by Reymelio Delute last April.
An order, signed by Deputy Executive Secretary Michael Aguinaldo, directing the city officials to comment on the allegations against them was received by City Hall last Wednesday.
“(The respondents) are hereby directed to submit within 15 days from receipt hereof, their verified Answers (not a Motion to Dismiss) to the attached Complaint-Affidavit of Atty. Reymelio M. Delute for grave misconduct and abuse of authority in connection with the alleged illegal appropriation of P20,000 each to employees of the city government as calamity assistance,” the Malacanang order signed by Deputy Execuvite Secretary Aguinaldo said.
In his complaint-affidavit, Delute cited several newspaper articles and editorials about the allocation and passage of the calamity assistance resolution.
Fabricated victims
“Mayor Michael Rama of the City of Cebu fabricated calamity victims including himself, to avail themselves of funds from the city,” Delute alleged.
“In an interview, Rama said he received his P20,000 in calamity assistance to pay for water and electricity bills in his residence inside the Rama compound in Basak San Nicolas. Many of Yolanda victims still suffer from lack of power,” he added.
Mayor Rama said he is not worried about the case.
“I don’t have to add up. Sige silag pangita asa i-pin down si Mike Rama. Inig pin down nila, pin down man tanan, hasta employees. Kung ila ko i-pin down ako lang unta, dili tanan (They also look for ways to pin down Mike Rama. When they pin down Rama, they pin down all, including employees. If they want to pin me down, they shouldn’t include everyone),” he said.
Who is Atty. Delute?
The complainant Delute, a former councilor of Tuburan town, was a City Hall consultant when Tomas Osmena was mayor from 2001 to 2004.
In last year’s barangay elections, Delute challenged George Rama, the incumbent mayor’s brother, for the captaincy of barangay Basak San Nicolas, but was unsuccessful in his bid.
Before filing the complaint, the 66-year-old lawyer admitted that he had a meeting with Osmena where they discussed the move.
City legal officer Jerone Castillo said he will convene a case conference with the officials who were included in the complaint. Off hand, he said the complaint was a form of forum shopping as the Commission on Audit (COA) is already investigating the issue.
“In my opinion in hindsight, if the case was concerning good governance, it should have been filed before the Ombudsman, but it was filed before the Office of the President,” he said.
“In my opinion, it was improperly filed. It was a wrong venue. And it’s already forum-shopping since it will preempt the investigation of the COA.”.
The COA earlier said the release of the P84.5 million calamity assistance to employees violated the Salary Standardization Law covering benefits due to government employees.
The City Hall relief assistance was recorded as “donations” and was charged to the city’s donations account under the Office of the City Administrator and not from the calamity fund.
“The recording of financial assistance under the ‘Donations’ account is irregular for it tends to mislead the true nature of the disbursement in the disguise of giving donations instead of the proper other bonuses and allowances account,” the COA said.
Political harassment
City Attorney V Jose Daluz III, who is also Mayor Rama’s executive assistant, said the complaint was a form of “political harassment”.
“This is clearly political harassment. The Office of the President is Liberal Party. They will be politically-biased in resolving this. I doubt they will resolve this with an impartial decision,” said.
He finds the complaint as politically-motivated since the complaint before the Office of the President, which he said is a “political office.”
He said if Delute was “sincere” in his complaint, he should have filed it before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“This is a strategy. I can see something from the other side. I even doubt they will delay this case and resolve it next year in time for the coming elections,” Daluz, a former city councilor, added.
Delute asked the Office of the President that a preventive suspension be imposed among the respondent officials pending the resolution of his administrative complaint.
“This is not just a case against the named officials, but this is a case filed against all the employees of the Cebu City Hall,” Daluz said.
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