Dumanjug mayor taps lawyer-dad’s help in contesting dismissal order

GICA

DUMANJUG Mayor Efren Guntrano “Gun-gun” Gica has turned to his father, Edgar, a known lawyer in Cebu, for help as he plans to contest the Visayas Ombudsman’s order dismissing him from service and indicting him for malversation of public funds and falsification of official documents.

Gica said he would file a motion for reconsideration this week at the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.

Gica said he would be hoping that the results would favor him this time especially since he was not able to present his side against the charges in the complaint filed by former Dumanjug mayor Nelson Garcia at the Office of the Ombudsman.

“I am keeping my fingers crossed and trust the Lord. I hope and pray that the Office of the Ombudsman will read our motion for reconsideration. We didn’t have the due process before,” Gica said in a phone interview.

Gica said he would want to invoke the (Aguinaldo) condonation doctrine in his case.

The Aguinaldo condonation doctine is a principle where elected officials may escape administrative liability if they will again be voted into office because their reelection will mean that their constituents have already forgiven them for their offenses.

However, in 2015, the Supreme Court has abandoned the condonation doctrine which was introduced in the higher courts in 1959.

Gica also said that the Deputy Ombudsman’s power is to discipline a salary grade 25 (official) in which at present he is under salary grade 27.

The case against Gica was filed by then mayor Nelson Garcia when Gica was still the town’s vice mayor back in 2014.

The Visayas Ombudsman ordered his dismissal from service after he was found guilty of dishonesty and grave misconduct for allegedly pocketing about P10,000 from a cash advance and failed to properly account for it.

He was also indicted for malversation of public funds, falsification of official documents and violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act over the same case.

Gica, however, claimed yesterday that he had complete documents to present to the Ombudsman supporting his motion for reconsideration.

So far, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG-7) has not served the order yet against Gica.

Gica said that he would respect the rule (of law) even if he was working on a legal remedy to his case.

“If naa nay manduan na ipa-serve (order), I will have to step down. If ma-serve, kung ma-serve and if ma-serve,” Gica said.