12 City Hall employees testify in calamity aid case

AT LEAST 12 Cebu City Hall employees testified yesterday in the case about alleged irregularities in the P20,000 calamity aid released in 2013 to   Cebu City officials.

The employees affirmed that they were indeed calamity victims of the 2013 typhoon YOlanda.

After yesterday’s hearing, both parties were given 10 days to file their formal offer of evidence and memorandum by the  Department of Interior and Local Government 7 (DILG-7).

After this,   DILG hearing officer  Isidro Barrios III, will submit a recommendation to the Office of the President.

Cebu City legal officer Jerone Castillo  at least 30 employees were ready to testify that they are calamity victims, but logistically it was difficult for them to send the other employees  to the DILG.

He said that instead they have affidavits and testimonies from these employees,

“It will only prove that there’s no such thing as a fabrication of calamity victims. That was the point there. We have 12 people saying that they are calamity victims. How can you fabricate (that)?” he asked.

“Their houses, roofs, or ceilings   were damaged by the earthquake or Yolanda,” Castillo said.

The employees were presented at the hearing to refute allegations by the complainant, lawyer Remelio Delute, that  city officials, including Mayor Michael Rama,  fabricated claims of damage to justify receiving the P20,000 calamity assistance in 2013.

Lawyer Benjamin Militar, Delute’s counsel, however, said that there was no way to verify if these employees are indeed victims.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, one of the respondents, was set to give his  testimony yesterday but the hearing didn’t start on time and he had to leave to attend to official matters at City Hall.

His lawyer, Floro Casas Jr. said that the only issue that was not admitted in the hearing last December 3 was the vice mayor’s assertion that he was a calamity victim.

“In order to dispense with the testimony of the Vice Mayor on that, we will just move to withdraw the offer (to testify) as far as that particular purpose is concerned ,” Casas said.

Casas said several issues were already cleared up.

He  said Labella already confirmed that as vice mayor, he was presiding officer of the City Council and did not vote on the matter or participate in the deliberation on the passage of the ordinance granting the P20,000 calamity assistance to all employees and officials of Cebu City.