PB ex-officio member Celestino Martinez III
Tining seeks TRO from CA; vacates seat as PB ex-officio member
There is now a vacancy at the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) as Celestino “Tining” Martinez III vacated his seat as ex-officio member of the board, being president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Cebu Chapter.
Martinez was dismissed from government service and perpetually disqualified from holding public office by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the 2004 Fertilizer Fund Scam when he was still mayor of Bogo City.
DILG Provincial Director Jerome Gonzales said they implemented the dismissal order last Thursday, July 28.
“Last week, I heard that they (DILG) would be implementing the order. Actually, we were already taking steps. We filed a petition (for review) with the Court of Appeals (CA). So, we’re hoping that the CA can resolve this matter as soon as possible,” Martinez said in a press conference at his office at the Capitol yesterday close to noon.
He also questioned the timing of the dismissal order considering that the case dated as far back as 2004.
“This action is very suspicious in nature considering that it’s only two months before the barangay elections. This case is very, very old, way back 2004,” Martinez said.
But while he claims that he has not yet received an official copy of the dismissal order implemented by the DILG last week, Martinez said he had no choice but to follow the order while waiting for the CA to act on it.
According to Gonzales, the DILG implemented the order in the barangay hall of Cayang in Bogo City — an act which is considered as a legitimate enforcement based on DILG guidelines.
Gonzales said that aside from Martinez, former Bogo City Treasurer Rhett Minguez was also included in the dismissal order but the latter had already left government service.
Minguez ran for councilor in the May 9 elections but lost.
While saying that the Ombudsman order is immediately executory, Gonzales also said Martinez can still pursue other legal remedies but has to heed the order while doing so.
“He should fight it in court. There are a lot of legal remedies,” he told reporters.
Leave
Martinez said he was on leave last week because he was in Manila. He was supposed to report back to work yesterday but after hearing that the dismissal order was already served by the DILG, he decided not to go to work.
He did not attend the launching of the province’s month-long celebration of its 447th founding anniversary which was attended by other PB members.
He also didn’t attend the board’s regular session yesterday afternoon.
Committees
Aside from the vacancy in the board, Martinez’s dismissal also means vacating his chairmanship of four major committees in the PB which includes the Committee on Budget and Appropriations.
The other committees are the Committees on Barangay Affairs and Rural Development, the Committee on Provincial and Municipal owned properties, as well as Committee on Human Rights and Labor.
He has the most number of committees among all PB members.
“There is a vice chairperson. For the interim, in case it (dismissal) is not yet resolved, the vice chairman gets to hold the committees,” Martinez said.
The vice chairperson of the committee on budget is Miguel Antonio Magpale.
Other PB members will also take over Martinez’s other committees: Edsel Galeos for barangay affairs, Jude Thaddeus Durano Sybico for the provincial and municipal properties and Christopher Baricuatro for human rights.
In a separate interview, Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, who sits as presiding officer, expressed concern over the dismissal of Martinez.
“Anugon kaayo kay (It’s such a waste because) he has been performing well as a board member. We gave him very important committees since he is a senior member,” she told reporters.
ABC president
It also remains unclear as to who will take over the seat of Martinez in the board, in an ex-officio capacity, as ABC Cebu Chapter president.
The ABC vice president Emerito Calderon Sr. has already vacated that post with his election as mayor of Samboan during the last elections.
Martinez explained that the ABC doesn’t provide guidelines on succession after the vice president. The only option, according to him, is to call for a special election to choose a new ABC president.
“But it’s too close to call for a special election because hapit naman ang election sa October (the barangay election in October is already very near),” he said, adding that holding a special election will need approval from the ABC in Manila.
His suggestion is to wait until a new ABC president is elected after the barangay elections and keep the seat vacant until then.
He also said holding a special election may result in an awkward situation if for example a new president is chosen and a ruling from the CA might come out in his favor and the new president will have to move out immediately.
Dismissal
Martinez said he and his lawyer were surprised by the sudden dismissal order considering that the case was filed when he was still mayor in 2004, at a time when the Aguinaldo doctrine was still in effect.
When the Ombudsman indicted Martinez and Minguez last year, they were found to have violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in connection to the anomalous implementation of the Farm Inputs and Farms Implements Program in 2004.
The anti-graft office said Bogo, which was still a municipality at that time, received six checks amounting to P6 million from the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Field Unit VII in May 2004 for the procurement of fertilizers for rice and corn.
The Ombudsman said that Bogo and a Quezon City-based non-government organization, Sikap Yaman, entered into an undated Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with no project cost and time schedule.
Based on the MOA, they said Martinez and Minguez issued undated and unnumbered disbursement vouchers to the NGO. They also found out that Sikap Yaman was not an accredited NGO.
Martinez and Minguez filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the Ombudsman. But according to Martinez, that motion was never acted upon, that is why they were surprised that the dismissal order was immediately implemented.
Martinez said Minguez received a copy of the dismissal order of the Ombudsman, which became their basis for the filing of the Petition for Review with a prayer for a Status Quo Ante, last month. The petition is still to be acted upon by the CA.
Accredited
Yesterday, Martinez reiterated part of their arguments that Sikap Yaman was accredited by the Sangguniang Bayan of Bogo. It is not the mayor that accredits NGOs, he said.
Martinez also said they didn’t expect any decision on the administrative aspect of the case since he was reelected for a third term as mayor during the 2007 elections. When the case was filed against him, he was on his second term.
He said the administrative case should have been dismissed by effect of the Aguinaldo doctrine which was only reversed by the Supreme Court last year.
Martinez is still on his first term as barangay captain of Cayang and said he plans to pursue another term come the October barangay elections. He said he’s already expecting that by the time he files a Certificate of Candidacy for the election, this dismissal order will be brought up against him.
This is why he said he cannot avoid his suspicions about the timing of the implementation of the dismissal order although he refused to elaborate further.