Mayor Jonas Cortes to appeal his suspension for 1 year

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes. | Photo from the Fb of Jonas Cortes

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu –  Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes is currently coordinating with his lawyers to seek reconsideration of the Ombudsman’s decision to place him under suspension for a year for grave misconduct.

Atty. Jamal James Calipayan, the Mandaue City Administrator, said that Cortes was prepared to exhaust all available legal remedies to appeal his suspension.

“We will exhaust all legal remedies, to siguro kung mahimo nga ma-reverse ang decision or to make a reconsideration of the decision. Actually, mayor has an external legal counsel nag-handle ani nga case. We spoke regarding that and will explore all legal remedies,” Calipayan said in a press conference on Wednesday.

READ: Mayor Cortes not alarmed of rumored preventive suspension

Calipayan faced the Cebu media to answer queries on Cortes’ suspension since the mayor was busy attending to another concern.

During the interview, Calipayan said that the suspension did not come as a surprise for Cortes. Still, it saddened him.

In previous interviews, Cortes said that he was anticipating a possible suspension because of the threats and the various cases that were lodged against him.

READ: Mayor Cortes downplays charges filed against him for mangrove cutting

But the good thing is that none of the complaints against Cortes involved graft and corruption, an indication that he did not misuse government funds, Calipayan said.

Calipayan said that he advised the mayor to continue to hold office until such time that he receives an implementation order that will specify when the suspension will take effect.

Why is Jonas Cortes suspended?

The Office of the Ombudsman suspended Cortes for one year, without pay, for grave misconduct conduct after he allegedly made an illegal appointment at City Hall.

READ: Lahug resident asks OP to probe Cortes, 4 others for ‘land grabbing’

The decision stemmed from the administrative case that Sereno Gabayan Monsanto, Rosimay Cali Caling, and Annibel Dela Cerna Andebor filed against Cortes and City Social Welfare and Services (CSWS) head Camilo Basaca Jr.  The order was signed by signed by Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer Napoleon Regan Malimas.

All of the three complainants accused the mayor of illegally designating Basaca as the officer-in-charge of CSWS.

They insisted that Basaca lacked the eligibility and qualification to head the office, a violation of section 483 of Republic Act 7160 otherwise known as Local Government Code.

In addition, the complainants alleged that Cortes deliberately refused to appoint a qualified officer because he has not opened the position even if it had been vacant for almost a year.

Moreover, they claimed that the concerns that they raised on August 2022 on the selection of beneficiaries for the city’s release of financial assistance was not attended to.

Basaca was designated as the CSWS head on July 2022 and was currently replaced by Atty. Mitzi Abadia. He now occupies the position of CSWS assistant head.

However, the complaint filed against Basaca was dismissed by the Ombudsman for insufficient evidence.

In its decision dated August 12, 2024, the Ombudsman said that the penalty for grave misconduct is dismissal from service even on the first offense.  However, it said that there was “neither allegation nor was it found that the irregular designation of Basaca was attended with elements of corruption.”

Not commensurate

According to Calipayan, Mayor Cortes is yet to personally receive a copy of the Ombudsman’s order that was received at the Office of the Mayor on Wednesday morning.

For Calipayan, the suspension order was unfair.

“Sa ako lang opinion, murag dili gyud siya commensurate because kani man gud siya nga action gud, this was already done by the previous administration, and there was no penalty from the Office of the Ombudsman. Same facts. This was done by [the] Mayor in good faith because he believed nga kani nga person [nga iyang gi-appoint] could help out in the office. Makita man sad nato nga efficient kaayo ang CSWS. It was not really to [the] detriment of the service or of the constituents,” he added.

Calipayan said that Cortes was very sad when he learned about his suspension.

“He was very sad of what happened because para namo Mayor Jonas was there because he was trusted by the constituents of Mandaue. It’s more of him being deprived of the thing that he loves most to do and that is to serve the Mandauehanons. There was no issue on corruption. It’s just that ang pag-designate lang gyud, that is what I want to point out,” said Calipayan.

Premature

Also on Wednesday, the Mayor’s Office received a copy of the order from the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman on the dismissal of a complaint that was filed by Maria Priscilla Melendres  against Cortes and four city councilors for being “premature.”

Melendres filed a criminal complaint against Cortes and Councilors Maline Cortes-Zafra, Oscar Del Castillo, Jennifer Del Mar, and Cynthia Remedio in connection with the 9.5 hectares of privately owned land the city allegedly distributed to informal settlers.

The other cases that Melendres filed against Cortes and Calipayan and City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office Head Buddy Alain Ybañez were remanded to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office for further investigation.

The complaint was in connection to the alleged cutting of mangroves in Brgy. Paknaan in November 2022, the area that Melendres claims to own.