ACCESS RESTRICTED

Two City Hall side entrances closed over ‘security concerns’

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has tightened security at the City Hall after divulging threats to his safety and amid rising emotion among his supporters over the six-month suspension meted by Malacañang against him and 13 other city officials.

Rama, speaking before reporters yesterday, said he decided to place City Hall on a “security alert” as he has reasons to be concerned about his safety because he believed his “opponents” would allegedly do anything to get him out of City Hall before the May 9 elections in the event the suspension could not be carried out.

“If I will not be suspended, what will happen?  Kanang mga tawo nga gusto ko ma-suspended unya dili nila makuha, unsay ilang buhaton? (People who want me suspended and won’t get it, what will they do?” asked Rama.

Rama claimed that among his “threats” came in the form of  unspecified text messages from unknown persons, particularly after he declined to engage in a debate with his mayoral opponent, former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

“Because times (are) not good. (My) Opponents are desperate. Therefore we must be very clear (with) our security,” Rama said to explain his decision to close two side entrances to City Hall.

Aside from closing the entrances leading to the vice mayor’s office and along D. Jakosalem Street, Rama also ordered the closure of all remaining doors in City Hall starting at 5 p.m. except for the main entrance door at the Legislative Building’s side.

Rama directed all city security personnel to also check who among the city employees were planning to do overtime work to ensure that people with no business inside the building at past 5 p.m. would not be seen inside.

Rama stressed that the beefing up of City Hall’s security was not meant to stop authorities from implementing the suspension order, should it be allowed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), but to ensure the safety of everyone going in and out of the building.

The Comelec en banc will reportedly take up at 9 a.m. today the letter-request from the Office of the President, sent through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), for an exemption from the election rule that prohibited the suspension of elective officials during the election period.

Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, a Rama ally, said they were informed of the Comelec en banc schedule by their own sources and “we will send our lawyers to Manila (today) to follow up on the Comelec discussion.”

Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who is seeking reelection under Team Rama, explained that with their supporters getting extremely emotional over their suspension, certain “elements might take advantage of the situation (and) create an atmosphere of violence (and) disturbance.”

“So we really have to secure (City Hall),” he added.

The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will be ready to deploy two platoons of anti-riot police if any commotion erupts in City Hall.

CCPO has 54 personnel ready to be deployed to secure the perimeters of the Cebu City Hall, said Chief Insp. David Señor, CPPO chief of operations.

PARANOID

Sought for comment,  Osmeña said he and Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) have other things to do than get involved in Rama’s so-called safety concerns.

“Mr. Rama is afraid of his own shadow. I didn’t think of that (rallying supporters to City Hall). I’m now busy with other things,” Osmeña said in a text message.

He said Rama was “over reacting” when he ordered City Hall doors closed.

“He is very paranoid. He is very emotional. I do not know why he is very emotional,” Osmeña added in a separate phone interview.

He  laughed at Rama’s apprehension that his opponents would take advantage of his supporters’ emotions and create chaos at City Hall.

Osmeña reiterated he has nothing to do with the issuance of Rama’s suspension order, as alleged by his opponents.

“He (Rama) is being OA (over acting). If he just followed the law, then there is no problem,”  he said.

Rama, Labella and 12 councilors were suspended by the Office of the President for abuse of authority over the release of P20,000 in calamity aid given to each city official and employee in December 2013 despite not being direct victims of the earthquake and Supertyphoon Yolanda that hit Cebu and a wide area in the Visayas in October and November of that year.

Rama, he said, should not pass the blame on him because it was the Commission on Audit (COA) that disallowed the release of the calamity assistance.

“It was the COA  who said that there was a crime. COA is like the Supreme Court, you cannot tell them what to do,” he said.

Osmeña said Rama was not a calamity victim and  was not qualified to collect the calamity aid and, as a lawyer, he too, should have known it was legally wrong to grant the aid.

“I have no pity for Mr. Rama. But I pity the 4,000 employees who also received the calamity assistance. I pity the eight BO-PK councilors whom he told it was okay to release the calamity aid,” he said.

Carillo, meanwhile, said they were mulling the filing of a petition for certiorari before the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the implementation of order.

He said the Comelec’s confirmation that there was a request for exemption from DILG should be enough basis for them to file for a prohibition before the CA.

SARMIENTO: HANDS OFF

Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, reached by phone yesterday,  washed his hands off the suspension order, saying it was a matter handled directly by the DILG legal department.

He said he adopted a policy to rely completely on “expertise and knowledge” of their legal department to resolve cases involving elected officials because he is not a lawyer.

He said the DILG legal department has “the free hand and the blanket authority to investigate and make a ruling on all cases or complaints filed against local government officials. All resolutions coming from the DILG legal department are issued without requiring my prior approval.”

He said he only learned about Rama’s case when the DILG legal department submitted its decision to Malacañang recommending the suspension of Rama and the 13 other city officials.

Sarmiento stressed the decision went through normal legal process and had nothing to do with politics. In the interest of fairness, Sarmiento said the DILG legal department referred the case to Comelec to seek an exemption from the Omnibus Election Code that prohibits suspension of elective officials during election period.

“The DILG will definitely abide by whatever decision from the Comelec,” he added.

As of last night, the Comelec has yet to rule on Malacañang’s request to allow the suspension of Rama and the 13 other City Hall officials.

“As far as I know, there’s no resolution yet,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told CDN over the phone.

Sarmiento, meanwhile, said that if there was one person who would resist any attempt to distort the legal process to pin down Rama, it would be him.

He said the Ramas of Cebu have been his close family friends since the 1970s. But as DILG secretary, he added, he had a sworn duty to implement a lawful order regardless of political and personal affiliations.

“It really bleeds my heart that we have to come this situation where my department has to make a decision unfavorable to  people who are truly dear to me. I could have intervened to help the Ramas because I treat them like a family, but it is against my nature to use my office and my position to obstruct the rule of law,” Sarmiento said.

Despite the growing frustration among Team Rama supporters, Carillo  said they told their supporters to “remain calm.”

Rama said he was supposed to beef up security at City Hall 15 days prior to the election, but he decided to implement it earlier. “I’m taking this whole exercise differently. This is a different election. Events had practically made it. It should have been 15 days before election, but events had occurred that they want my neck. So what’s next?” he asked.

Labella likewise stressed that the closure of the side entrances were just them taking precautionary measures.

“Let us not wait for any incident to happen,” he said.

Rama said he planned to keep the side entrances closed until after the elections. He added, however, that although the doors were not open for the use of the public, these were not locked for emergency purposes.

“City Hall will be open. It will never be closed. We just have to be security conscious,” added Rama.

FAIR PLAY

Cebu third district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia came to the mayor’s defense, saying she was convinced the suspension was orchestrated by their political opponents.

She said that it is “clear as day that it was just a political stunt and ploy.”

“Our opponents cannot play fair,” she told CDN in a phone interview, referring to the Liberal Party (LP).

Garcia is one of the founding members of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) while Rama is the party’s regional coordinator.

Garcia has taken a leave of absence from UNA because of her and One Cebu’s support for the presidential bid of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, but she remained allies with Rama.

Although the DILG has yet to implement the suspension order, Garcia had a similar experience when she was suspended as Cebu governor in 2012.

She said their opponents would always try to take advantage of their close links to Malacañang to the extent of “abusing their power in order to stash the deck in their favor.”

“Perhaps it is precisely because in a level playing field, they know that they are way behind,” said Garcia./with reports from Jennifer Allegado (Inquirer Visayas Bureau)

TAGS: Cebu, Cebu City, Cebu City hall, Comelec, election, Mayor Michael Rama, politics, suspension, Tomas Osmeña