Malacañang’s request to allow the suspension of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and 13 other City Hall officials will have to wait until after the elections in May .
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc yesterday voted 4-3 against granting Malacañang the clearance to implement the suspension of the Cebu City officials and instead referred to its earlier decision not to entertain any request to suspend an elected official until after the elections, sources close to the poll body told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
The sources, however, declined to say who among the seven Comelec commissioners voted to deny the request for exemption from Malacañang.
Majority of the commissioners instead upheld the decision they reached during their en banc meeting on March 29, where they ruled to defer until after the May 9 elections all action on requests for authority to suspend local elective officials, lest it will be used “to influence the conduct or the result of the elections.”
The en banc’s decision affirmed the memorandum dated March 28, 2016 of Maria Norina S. Tangaro-Casingal, acting director of the Comelec law department, who raised the political implications of allowing the suspension of elected officials, especially ones who are seeking posts on May 9.
The minutes of the March 29 Comelec en banc meeting was received by the poll body’s law department on April 14, a copy of which was furnished to CDN yesterday.
The Tangaro-Casingal memorandum cited Section 261 (g) of the Omnibus Election Code which requires a prior authority from the Comelec in the hiring of new employees during the election period, as it can be applied by analogy to requests to implement the suspension orders against elective officials.
“Evidently, if even the mere hiring of new employees or creation and filing of new positions has been seen as a mechanism that can be used to influence the election, it stands to reason that the suspension of a local elective official can be used for the very same purpose. This is especially true if said local official is himself a candidate during the very election that his order of suspension as a penalty or preventive suspension is being implemented,” it said.
Thus, it said, it was the Comelec’s duty to ensure that suspensions should not be used, “in any manner, to influence the conduct or result of the elections, particularly where those involved are themselves candidates” for the May 9 polls.
“Moreover, one of the most effective ways of leveling the playing field is to provide all candidates who have at least some demonstrable electoral support to campaign and lay their platforms to boost or promote themselves to the electorate. This will counter if we allow other candidates to use any order of suspension as a penalty or preventive suspension against their rival candidates that will definitely influence the conduct or the results of the election,” the memorandum said.
Rama, when he learned of the Comelec decision, declared: “Praise the Lord, Allelujah!”
“Justice has been served,” he added.
The mayor, however, said he was not about to lift the “security alert” he ordered on City Hall until he has thoroughly reexamined the security of the building.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella said he was also happy with the decision, as it would spare them from the humiliation of being suspended and at the same time give them enough time to file their motion for reconsideration to the Office of the President.
Lawyer Akia Kho of the Comelec law department, reached by phone last night, confirmed the the March 29 Comelec en banc resolution but stressed it was a general rule applied to all elective officials, not just to those from Cebu City.
“I can’t say when the Comelec en banc will rule on that particular case (the request to suspend Rama and the others city officials). We can’t second-guess whatever actions they will take,” he told CDN over the phone.
Early this year, the Comelec prohibited the suspension of local elective officials during the election period, or from Jan. 10 until June 8, citing Rule 4 of Comelec Resolution No. 10030 dated 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 poll body.
The only exception to the prohibition is if the suspension involves violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for those suspension orders that were already implemented before the start of the election period but is continuously served during or even after the period.
Since the suspension involving Rama and 13 city officials does not involve graft and corruption, it needs a prior approval from Comelec before its implementation.
This means that Rama, Vice Mayor Labella and the 12 city councilors, unless they can overturn the suspension order issued by the Office of the President, can still be suspended if Comelec will give a clearance after May 9. But the most they will serve on suspension will be just over a month, or until the end of their term on June 30, 2016.
The order, signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. on April 7, placed Rama and the 13 other officials on suspension for six months for abuse of authority for giving a P20,000 calamity aid to each city official, including themselves, and employees in December 2013 even if they were not victims of the 7.2 earthquake and Supertyphoon Yolanda that hit wide areas in the Visayas in October and November that year.
The Malacañang order, however, also said that the suspension period should not exceed the suspended officials’ term of office. Thus, if the Comelec decides not to grant an exemption even after May 9, it will be likely that the suspension can only be served after the end of the election period on June 8, or just about three weeks before the city officials’ terms of office end on June 30.
Laywer Remeylio Delute, the complainant in the case, yesterday expressed dismay over the Comelec’s order to defer discussion on the suspension of Rama and the other officials.
Delute said he went to Comelec Manila yesterday morning but could not wait for the Comelec en banc meeting set at 2 p.m., as he had to catch his 7 p.m. flight back to Cebu.
“Makadismaya gyud (I am dismayed) but there is nothing that I can do,” he told CDN in a text message.
Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) leader Tomas Osmeña said the deferment of the en banc discussion on Rama’s suspension did not change the fact that the mayor was found guilty of abuse of authority by the Office of the President.
“We will accept whatever Comelec’s decision is because it is Delute’s case, not ours. But the deferment of the suspension does not change the fact that Mr. Rama was found guilty of taking P80 million (the total amount of the calamity aid) from the Cebuanos,” he said in a text message last night.