Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is in Japan for the World Congress on Disaster Risk Reduction and if reports are any indication, the local chief executive was distracted by events in Makati City wherein Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay is trying to fend off the Department of Interior and Local Government DILG from enforcing the Ombudsman order suspending him from office.
Mike couldn’t help but feel anxious because he, along with Vice Mayor Edgar Labella and some city councilors, are facing charges of grave misconduct and abuse of authority. The DILG regional office is hearing the case which stemmed from the grant of calamity aid to City Hall officials and employees in the aftermath of the killer quake that hit Cebu in October 2013 and typhoon Yolanda in November.
The preventive suspension order ostensibly paves the way for the anti-graft body, after having found probable cause, to conduct a preliminary investigation into charges, in this instance, filed against the Makati City mayor for “grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service”. The cases arose from the alleged overpriced construction of a public parking facility built in 2007 when Junjun Binay’s father and namesake, Jejomar, was mayor of Makati City.
The intention of a preventive suspension is precisely to prevent or bar public officials from influencing witnesses or tampering evidence by using their positions in the course of the investigation that will determine if there is prima facie evidence to warrant the filing of criminal cases against an official. Such an order therefore contributes immensely to the conduct of a fair and unobstructed probe. But since the administrative measure may also be perceived as a punishment or even a ploy to remove an official, the scenario becomes very complicated. The concerned party is not totally helpless. He can temporarily stop the process by asking the court to “TRO” it.
The Temporary Restraining Order is an extraordinary measure because the court can issue it even without sending notice to the other party.
The political drama that unfolded in Makati City last March 17 started early in the morning. The DILG regional director in Metro Manila served the preventive suspension order on Mayor Junjun Binay. Despite the status of the server, he was denied entry. Unable to hand the notice to the mayor, who was holed up in his office three floors up Makati City Hall, the DILG official posted the order in full view of the public. An hour later, Makati Vice Mayor Romulo Pena took his oath of office but the Binay camp was able to secure a Temporary Restraining Order from the Court of Appeals by 3 p.m. of the same day.
The DILG asserts that since the order of the Ombudsman preventively suspending Binay from office had already been served and in fact enabled the succession of the vice mayor, there is nothing to restrain. Ombudsman Conchita Carpio
Morales practically echoed the DILG’s line when she declared later in the day that the TRO came “too late”.
Although the Binays would like to impress upon Makati residents that it’s business as usual, the presence of more than 1,000 policemen around City Hall premises is fraught with danger. Mayor Binay belongs to the opposition United
Nationalist Alliance (whose presumed presidential standard bearer is Vice President Jejomar Binay) while the vice mayor is affiliated with the administration Liberal Party, whose presumptive presidential candidate is DILG Secretary Mar Roxas.
Political observers are saying the LP attempt to unseat the Binays from the richest city in the country is so halata (obvious) that they predict the situation will get physical. The question is, in the midst of the political turbulence now buffeting the country, can President Aquino, whose approval rating is disastrously plummeting, afford to wage a virtual war in another front?
Over station dyHP yesterday, I heard retired Executive Judge Meinrado Paredes air his opinion on the controversy. Interviewed by anchorman Ruphil Bañoc, Paredes said the TRO issued by the Court of Appeals, whether rightly or wrongly dispensed, should be followed because that is the law. As if to underscore the opinion of the retired judge, Ruphil delivered the punch line, “we live under the rule of law and not the law of men”.
It was clever of Ruphil, himself a lawyer, to ask his professor in Remedial Law to chew on the issue because the law is on Binay’s side. The broadcaster has been very critical of President Aquino’s handling of the Mamasapano massacre and the constitutionally infirm Bangsamoro Basic Law and lest Bañoc be accused of siding with the political opposition, he had Judge Paredes cut it for the listening audience.
So is Mayor Michael Rama the next in line to be suspended?
Mike has always been an optimist but if an Aquino ally like Binay, one who holds sway over Makati which is considered a Yellow stronghold, now finds himself in a precarious situation, Mike should prepare himself for a bruising legal and political battle in the days to come.
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