NEW SUSPENSION FOR MIKE
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, who is facing another suspension from Malacañang, delivers his message in front of the Veterans Monument in Plaza Independencia during yesterday’s commemoration of the 74th Araw ng Kagitingan. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Barely two months since he returned to office after serving a 60-day suspension, and with just a month away from the May 9 elections, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama faces another suspension.
The Office of the President ordered Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 councilors suspended for six months for abuse of authority when they granted to themselves and the city’s employees a calamity aid of P20,000 each even if they were not victims of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and Supertyphoon Yolanda that hit Cebu in 2013.
The order was signed on April 6 by Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa Jr. “by the authority of the President.”
Ochoa said the grant of calamity aid to all city officials and employees was “improper.”
He said the Commission on Audit (COA) declared that the release of calamity assistance was irregular due to deficiencies, including lack of proof that the beneficiaries were victims of the two calamities.
“In granting calamity assistance based on the mere fact of employment with the Cebu City government without regard to actual damages suffered from calamities, respondent mayor’s (act) resulted in wastage of public funds,” he said.
Labella and the other councilors, Ochoa said, abused their authority when they approved the supplemental budget especially that they were also beneficiaries.
“They received P20,000 regardless of whether or not they obtained property losses or damages. The circumstance that they were also recipients of the public funds subject of their own approval is not merely coincidental,” he said. “It manifested their financial interest in the release of funds requiring their official act which is a misuse of authority.”
However, the suspension could not be implemented just as yet.
Ochoa, in his order, directed Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento to ask for an advice from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) central office if it could enforce the suspension, “considering that the implementation of an order of suspension against elective local officials during the election period may constitute and election offense.”
“People power”
When reached for comment, Rama said he did not receive a copy of the order.
“I don’t know if they already have that (Comelec) approval. They have to wait because that’s what they really want to do,” said Rama, in apparent reference to his opponents identified with Malacañang who wanted him suspended.
In December last year, Rama was also served a suspension order by Malacañang after finding merit in the complaint filed by Labangon Barangay Captain Victor Buendia on the alleged unlawful removal of the barangay-funded center island project. Rama returned to City Hall last Feb. 7 after serving the 60-day suspension.
Rama yesterday said he would meet with his lawyers to discuss the ruling and try to secure a copy of the document.
But according to City Hall sources, the city’s lawyers knew of the suspension order soon after it was sent to the DILG by Ochoa and held an emergency meeting from Friday night up to 2 a.m. on Saturday to discuss their next legal moves.
Some of those present in the meeting were even considering using “people power” to stop the mayor’s suspension, the sources revealed.
Rama was not in the meeting, the sources said, but was told that the Office of the President has applied for an exemption from Comelec’s Resolution no. 10030, issued on Dec. 22, 2015, which states that no elective provincial, city, municipal or barangay officer can be suspended unless there is prior written approval from the Comelec. The ban on suspension without Comelec approval is from Jan. 10 to June 8 this year.
Rama said he could not believe that Malacañang wanted him suspended in the middle of the campaign period.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo, one of those facing suspension, said the move was clearly political since they are allied with the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and that their opponents from the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) are with the administration’s Liberal Party (LP).
“If that’s the case, the people can see what it is. The thing speaks for itself. This is a political action. So the people have to decide,” Carillo told CDN.
Difficult to implement
The decision stemmed from the administrative case filed in April 2014 by lawyer Reymelio Delute, a city consultant when Tomas Osmeña, the head of BO-PK, was mayor from 2001 to 2004.
Delute, sought for comment, said he was informed of the decision yesterday, but he has not received an official copy as well.
Delute also admitted it might be difficult to implement the order considering the need for an exemption from the Comelec before it can be enforced. But he said he might use the Malacañang’s decision to bolster a criminal case that he was considering to file against the same city officials before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Rama and Labella are seeking reelection under Team Rama, which is allied with UNA led by presidential aspirant Vice President Jejomar Binay, the party’s standard bearer.
Four of the councilors ordered suspended are with Team Rama: Councilors Carillo, Noel Wenceslao, David Tumulak and Nendell Hanz Abella. Except for Carillo, who is running for representative of Cebu City’s south district, the three are seeking reelection.
The eight other councilors ordered suspended belong to BO-PK: Nestor Archival Sr., Mary Ann delos Santos, Sisinio Andales, Alvin Arcilla, Roberto Cabarrubias, Ma. Nida Cabrera, Alvin Dizon and Eugenio Gabuya Jr.
Except for Archival who is running for vice mayor, the rest are reelectionist.
Councilors Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, Lea Japson, James Anthony Cuenco and Richard Osmeña were not included in the complaint filed at the DILG.
Margot, wife of Tomas, and Japson abstained from voting on the supplemental budget that appropriated P83.5 million in calamity assistance to City Hall’s 4,200 officials and employees. At that time, Cuenco was out of the country while Richard Osmeña was absent.
Delute, in his complaint, questioned the release of calamity assistance to the city officials and employees when they were not victims of the earthquake that hit Cebu on Oct. 15, 2013 and Supertyphoon Yolanda that devastated a wide area in the Visayas, including Cebu, on Nov. 8 of the same year.
Rama earlier invoked the general welfare clause of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, which he said gave him the authority to release calamity assistance to city employees and that he enjoyed the presumption of regularity in the performance of his official duties.
Labella and the 12 city councilors, for their part, said Delute’s accusations were not supported by substantial, credible, and convincing evidence.
But the DILG, which heard Delute’s complaint, gave credence to his complaint and recommended the suspension of the respondents, to which Malacañang has now agreed with.
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