Why is Mayor Jonas Cortes suspended?

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes

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

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.

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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.”

Cortes to appeal suspension 

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.

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.

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.