Mayor Teresito Mariñas of Barili town in southwestern Cebu has been indicted for nepotism and now faces a complaint before the Sandiganbayan for supposedly designating his brother as human resource office head of the municipal government.
The Office of the Ombudsman filed the criminal case against Mariñas before the Sandiganbayan on March 18, 2016 for allegedly violating Executive Order 292, also known as the Administrative Code of 1987, when he appointed his brother Aniceto Mariñas to the position in 2007.
In recommending the mayor’s indictment, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said the Local Government Code of 1992 clearly stated that individuals are barred from being designated “in the career service of the local government if he is related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to the appointing or recommending authority.”
“(Mariñas)… does not deny issuing the subject memorandum order in favor of his brother Aniceto,” the Ombudsman noted.
It said the mayor used the appointment order for his brother as “basis for interposing his argument of ‘special assignment’ and justifying it further by the lack of qualified candidates for the position and Aniceto’s previous experience” as head of the human resource department.
The case, which was filed by a certain Kim Carmela Veloso in October 2010, has been raffled off to the antigraft court’s Third Division, also on March 18.
Mariñas, who was reached for comment last night, said he will face the indictment head on, but wondered why the decision was issued during the campaign period.
Mariñas, now serving his last term, is a member of the ruling Liberal Party and is running for vice mayor of Barili.
“I am not accusing anyone of having ulterior motives in this, but it just makes me wonder why. It could have been issued before or after elections. This could just be a ploy to distract me from the campaign,” he told Cebu Daily News over the phone.
The mayor said his brother Aniceto is no longer the human resource officer of the Barili municipal government and is now working as an administrative aide in the office of the local civil registrar.
Teresito said the case was filed against him during his first term as mayor of Barili.
Now serving his third term, Teresito is seeking the town’s vice mayoralty post against John Anthony Añober of One Cebu.
Businessman Jay Ruiz is running for mayor under the LP against Marlon Garcia of One Cebu, who ran against but lost to Mariñas three years ago.
The mayor said there was no progress in case since it was filed six years ago. He claimed to have already forgotten the details of the complaint and refused to comment further until he had consulted with his lawyer.
“I need to refresh my knowledge (about the case) but I will face this development,” said Mariñas.
Records from the Ombudsman show Mariñas claimed it was actually his predecessor, the late Mayor Robert Alquirola, who named Aniceto to his position as a “special assignment with no income” in March 2005.
But the Ombudsman ruled that there was probable cause that the mayor violated the law, which prohibits “all appointments… made in favor of a relative of the appointing or recommending authority, or of the chief of the bureau or office, or of the persons exercising supervision over him.”