THE hearing on the administrative case filed by barangay Labangon chairman Victor Buendia against Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was suspended after Buendia’s counsel, Benjamin Militar questioned the venue for the proceedings.
Militar and other lawyers of Buendia stayed at the City Council session hall and didn’t proceed to Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella’s conference room where the hearing was scheduled to be held.
“We are in the vice mayor’s office with the vice mayor’s lawyers. We have very strong objections on this. They are insisting on neutrality. How can that be neutral? Why should we go there?” he said.
Buendia filed an administrative case against Rama after the mayor ordered the demolition of a center island along Katipunan Street in 2014 despite his previous order to build it.
The Office of the President issued a 60-day suspension order on Rama, who insisted that the demolition order was based on the recommendation of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
But City Legal Offier Jerone Castillo, Rama’s counsel, said it was Militar who proposed that the hearing should be at Cebu City Hall.
“We are here exactly 2 p.m. We complied with the order of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG). It was Militar who suggested that the venue be City Hall. We didn’t suggest that the hearing will be held there, so long as it’s not at the DILG venue,” he said.
DILG hearing officer Isidro Barrios decided to suspend the hearing when Buendia’s lawyers refused to meet them at the vice mayor’s office.
“There’s only a miscommunication between the arrangement of venue. Apparently, we have no knowledge that there seems to be a conflict of interest here,” Barrios said.