Cebu City mayor mulls backlash after Binay
Court of Appeals stops Junjun Binay’s suspension
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama arrives in Sendai, Japan to attend a UN Conference in Disaster Risk Reduction. (CEBU CITY PIO)
After Makati City Mayor Erwin “Junjun” Binay, is Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama next in line for a suspension?
Rama seems to think so after Binay secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the six-month preventive suspension order from the Court of Appeals to be served by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG).
“Kay wa may sukod sa bawos ana. Ang gaba dili man magsaba (There’s no measure for the retaliation to come after this. Karma will just come without notice).
“I’m with (Binay’s) United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). I have been keeping track of what’s going on and I have seen the pattern. I wish they will not do that to me,” said the mayor, who is in Japan for a conference.
He spoke to reporters in Cebu via video conference.
Rama, Vice Mayor Edgar Labella and several city councils are facing administrative charges of grave misconduct and abuse of authority filed by lawyer Reymelio Delute before the Office of the President. The case is being heard at the DILG regional office.
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As a former Liberal Party member who bolted after leaving the Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan before seeking reelection in 2013, Rama has often felt the sting of being an outsider of the administration.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is also eyeing the presidency in 2016 against Binay’s father, Vice President Jejomar Binay next year.
Handiwork
Rama said he doesn’t understand why Junjun was served a six-month preventive suspension by the Ombudsman over the Makati City Hall building project which started during his father’s term as Makati City mayor in 2007.
The elder Binay is facing plunder charges in relation to the project which was allegedly overpriced by billions of pesos.
Rama said the suspension looks like the handiwork of the administration Liberal Party (LP) in preparation for the 2016 elections.
“I wish and pray that’s not the case because we are all elected by the people. I am not for (President Aquino’s) ouster. Because if there are shortcomings, then let’s move forward. Not because we are (placing blame). For me, the suspension is a cowardly political machination,” Rama said.
The administration charges filed against Rama, Labella and several councilors stems from the P20,000 calamity assistance allocated by a city ordinance to each city official and employee in the wake of the October 15 earthquake and supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.
Transfer
Rama received another bit of bad news. He was informed that Supt. Conrad Capa, acting Cebu City police chief, would be transferred.
Rama had wanted to keep him as police chief.
“I won’t block it if it’s a promotion. But I will still have to look into that. I don’t know if that’s really a promotion or is he taken out because, my worry is, are we preparing for 2016?”
He said the PNP has not given a shortlist of qualified candidates for him to choose the next police chief.
Supt. Prudencio Bañas, Police Regional Office chief, called him to inform him about the transfer.
Across the board
The charges against Rama and company were filed by Delute, who is identified with the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) which is allied with the LP.
In a recent DILG hearing Reymelio’s lawyer said they are open to excluding Labella and the council from the charges because they are questioning only the across-the-board distribution of the P20,000 calamity aid and not the ordinance that approved its allocation.
“Ari man nuon sila mangduot nako nga nanghatag ra kog bonus unya apil sila pirmiro. Karon, ako naman lang usa (They are going after me when I just wanted to give a bonus. At first they were included, now, I’m the only one). That is a very clear signal. And that will defy the equal protection clause. That can’t be. How about the others? Aren’t they included? What’s this? Weather weather lang? Are we having a martial law in a democratic period?,” Rama said.
The Commission on Audit (COA) issued a Notice of Disallowance last month for the disbursement of funds for the P20,000 calamity aid and asked that the city government reimburse the amount.
City Hall has six months to appeal the notice. With the disallowance, several councilors, mostly allied with the BO-PK, decided to return the P20,000 they re ceived from the city.
Earlier this month, Rama led city officials in a walkout from one of the preliminary conferences on the case called on by the DILG.
The walkout ensued after the agency refused to give a written copy of the notice denying their motion for reconsideration to suspend the hearings on the case on the grounds that the DILG has no jurisdiction on the case.
The city officials asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to issue an injunction on the proceedings, saying the P20,000 calamity aid allocation is covered by an ordinance approved by the council.
“Lisod lisoron pa ko anang DILG. I-suspend gyud ko nila. Basin gusto sila mapareha ming tanan mga dili Liberal ug naa sa UNA. Nakalimot sila nga perteng daghanang mga badlungon sa Liberal apan wa nila gilihok. Unsa nang kalakiha?” (The DILG is making it hard for me. They really want me suspended. Maybe they want us all from UNA and not from LP. They forgot that there are a lot of shenanigans in LP and they’re not acting on it. What is that?),” Rama said.
He cited as an example then congressman Tomas Osmeña’s decision to allocate P300 million of pork barrel funds from Cebu City’s south district to former congressman Eddie Gullas who used to represent Cebu’s first district.
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