Lawyer Mac Gordona shows a copy of the complaint that they filed at the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas. | CDN Digital photo / FAI
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu – At least 300 Cebu City residents have asked the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to probe Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia for authorizing the distribution of rice to some of the city’s barangays.
The complainants accused Garcia of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for committing technical malversation, misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
However, the filing of a complaint against him during the election season did not come as a surprise for Garcia.
READ: Ombudsman probes Mayor Garcia, Police Colonel Cañete over alleged graft
“Mao ra gihapon akong tubag niana, katungod mana nila nga mo-file ug kaso batok nako. Pero ang pangutana ana kun duna bana unod ang ilang kaso? Ana man gyud na kay kana laging punoan nga daghan ug bunga maoy batuon,” Garcia said.
(I will say the same thing that it is their right to file a complaint against me. But the question is, do they have enough evidence to substantiate their claims? That is what happens when a tree starts to bear fruits.)
READ: Raymond Garcia defends barangay subsidies amid politicization claims
Rice distribution
The complaint against Garcia stemmed from the privilege speech that Councilor Mary Ann Delos Santos delivered before the City Council. In her speech, Delos Santos, the north district congressional candidate of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauwagan (BOPK) mentioned of rice distribution in selected barangays last March 11.
Lawyer Mac Gordon, who is the legal counsel for the 300 complainants, mostly Carbon Public Market vendors, said that the funds used for the rice purchase came from the allocation of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO).
Gordon, who is running for Cebu City Councilor under (BOPK) in the May 12 elections, said that the complainants question the basis for the rice distribution since the city is not under a state of calamity.
Also charged were CDRRMO head Harold Alcontin and Portia Basmayor, head of City Social Welfare and Services (CSWS) office.
Highly irregular
The complainants, Gordon said, think that the rice distribution was “highly irregular” thus the need for an investigation.
“Ang ilang yano nga panghuna-huna is this, nganong naa may bugas nga gipanghatag? Dapat patas ang paghatag ani kay bisan sila, bisan nahimutang ni sila sa poorest of the poor kining mga ladlad vendors ba, kanang mga ambulant vendors. Gani usahay dakpon ni sila kay sila nagtinda sa dili nila sakto nga lugar,” Gordon.
(They wanted to know why rice is being distributed? The distribution should be made fair because these ambulant vendors belong to the poorest of the poor. And sometimes, they get arrested for selling in unauthorized places.)
“So ang ilang punto kay kami wala mi kabahini kay dili mi supporters sa kasamtangang mayor. Ang ilang punto is unfair ni siya,” he added.
(What they are trying to says is that they were not given a share because they are not supporters of the incumbent mayor. They find this unfair.)
Politically motivated
In a separate interview, Garcia said that the filing of a complaint against him was politically motivated.
At the same time, he clarified that CDRRMO funds were not used in the purchase of the rice that they distributed. The purchase was charged to the DSWS account.
Gordon said that his lawyering for the complainants has nothing to do with politics even if he is a BOPK candidate.
“Being a lawyer, it is my duty, and even if its unethical, duty of me nga dili nako balibaran any person who would seek my representation as a lawyer on the basis lang nga basin misinterpret as political motive,” he added. |FAI