From Japan, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama talks to Cebu media using Facetime. (CDN PHOTO/ JOSE SANTINO BUNACHITA)
Will he be the next local official to get suspended?
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he’s praying that he won’t be the next mayor to be suspended by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“I wish they won’t have to do that with me,” Rama told the press through video conference via Facetime.
Rama, who’s in Japan attending the World Congress on Disaster Risk Reduction is facing an administrative case of grave misconduct and abuse of authority along with Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and several councilors in relation to the P20,000 calamity aid distributed to both officials and employees in 2013.
BACKSTORY: Cebu execs give selves quake funds
The P20,000 was given as assistance to officials and employees after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Cebu City and Bohol province in October 15, 2013.
The Commission on Audit ruled there was no proof to show that the officials who received the calamity funds were victims of either the quake or supertyphoon Yolanda.
The agency mandated that recipients should refund the amount to the city’s coffers.
Rama said he can see a “pattern” in the six-month suspension order issued on Makati City Mayor Erwin “Junjun” Binay, adding that it is a crackdown by the Aquino administration against allies of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
But the Court of Appeals issued a 60-day temporary restraining order stopping the DILG from implementing the suspension order issued by the Ombudsman against Mayor Binay who is accused of being involved in the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall parking building.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama attends the World Congress on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan. (PHOTO FROM CEBU CITY PIO)
Rama said he’s worried that Interior Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas may influence the DILG investigation to have him suspended and initiate moves to restructure the city’s political hierarchy in order to favor the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK).
The BO-PK is allied with the Liberal Party which is headed by Roxas.