Suspended Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama (left) and Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia. [CDN Digital file photos]
“That’s purely chismis. Di ko mo comment ana. I never said anything to that effect,” Garcia said in a quick interview on Thursday, Sept. 12.
(That’s purely gossip. I will not comment on that. I never said anything to that effect.)
Earlier, Rama’s camp called out some City Hall officials for apparently reading out loud the decision of the Ombudsman over the nepotism charges against him during a meeting with barangay officials in the south district last September 6.
In a statement they criticized reports that the state’s anti-graft body had allegedly meted a penalty of dismissal from public office over the nepotism case filed against the suspended mayor.
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Rama’s legal team called for a press conference on Sept. 10, Tuesday, to inform the public that they were already addressing the issue.
On Tuesday, Lawyer Collin Rosell said “the order of dismissal of Mayor Rama was personally and openly relayed with a claim to have read the said decision during the meeting of barangay officials called by the acting Mayor (Raymond Garcia) last Friday night.”
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For his part, Garcia did not deny that he called for a meeting with the barangay officials, but it was only to ask for matters related to the Cebu City Government.
“Sige man ko’g patawag og meeting sa mga barangay officials. That’s no secret man. Sige man ko’g patawag because syempre as mayor, I have to ask kung unsa’y ilang mga concern, mga problema, ilang mga projects, ilang mga programs nga kinahanglan sa City of Cebu. So I always call on the barangays for meetings anywhere. It can be in City Hall, it can be outside [the City Hall],” he said.
(I often call for a meeting with the barangay officials. That’s not a secret. I often call for a meeting because, of course, as a mayor, I have to ask what are their concerns, their problems, their projects, their programs that the City of Cebu need. So I always call on the barangays for meetings anywhere. It can in City Hall, it can be outside [the city hall].)
Last Tuesday, Rosell was also asked if acting Mayor Garcia was behind the spread of these rumors, but he said it would be best to ask those who were in the meeting.
Rama’s camp said they already named the person concerned in the Motion for Clarification that they filed before the Ombudsman on Monday.
In their motion, they said they also asked the Ombudsman to shed light as to how and why that person claimed to have already read the decision and why he had access to it.
In 2023, a concerned citizen named Jonel Saceda, with an alias “Inday Josa Chongbian Osmeña,” filed complaints for nepotism, grave misconduct, and graft and corruption against Rama after he hired two of his wife’s brother-in-laws as casual employees at City Hall.
Last May, the Ombudsman also ordered to place Rama and seven other City Hall officials under a six-month preventive suspension for allegedly failing to pay the salaries of employees who had been reassigned from the City Assessors Office to other jobs. | with reports from Morexette Marie Erram, Senior Multimedia Reporter