Dumanjug Mayor Efren Gica shows to reporters a copy of his counter-affidavit after filing a Motion for Reconsideration before the Office of the Ombudsman- Visayas last month. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Dumanjug Mayor Gica, brother guilty of simple misconduct, oppression
The mayor of Dumanjug town is suspended once again.
This time the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas ordered the suspension of Dumanjug Mayor Efren Gica for a year after he and his brother, Erwin, were found to be guilty of simple misconduct and oppression in conducting a police raid last 2015 without a search warrant.
Erwin is currently a councilor of Dumanjug, a southern town 73 km from Cebu City.
Yesterday noon inside the Capitol, the Gica brothers picked up the copy of the suspension order from the Department of Interior and Local Government of Cebu province (DILG – Cebu).
The suspension of the two officials took effect yesterday and will last up to a year.
With Mayor Gica’s suspension, Vice Mayor Rene Asentista will take over as acting mayor while the first councilor will take over as the acting vice mayor.
Director Jerome Gonzales of DILG-Cebu said that both officials could not perform any official functions once they serve their suspension.
“No further orders are needed to officiate the takeover of the vice mayor. He will automatically be the acting mayor of Dumanjug once copies of the Ombudsman’s orders will be received by the vice mayor and first councilor,” said Gonzales.
Gonzales also clarified that the law of succession in the local government code does not apply in the case of the Gica brothers.
He said that the temporary suspension order of the respondents does not incapacitate them as mayor and councilor of Dumanjug town, respectively.
“There is no change in position. Gica is still the mayor, only that he is suspended. The vice mayor will only perform as the acting mayor. In the case of our town councilor, the position will remain vacant for one year,” said Gonzales.
But Mayor Gica said that their suspension might be shortened since their camp already filed a motion for reconsideration to the Ombudsman and a petition to the Court of Appeals (CA).
Gica said this is because they believe that the Ombudsman decision is not yet final.
“This is not the end of the road. And I’m 99.9 percent sure nga ma-reverse (the decision will be reversed),” Mayor Gica said.
The case against the Gica brothers stemmed from a complaint filed by Marlene Quirante at the Cebu Prosecutor’s Office in 2016, accusing them of raiding her house without presenting any warrant to authorize their search.
Quirante’s affidavit stated that on August 9, 2015, the Gica brothers, along with several police officers instructed her to get inside the house.
When she refused, she alleged that Councilor Gica handcuffed her and forced her to go inside the house.
But Mayor Gica in a press briefing yesterday denied the allegations.
Mayor Gica claimed that he and his brother were not present during the operation but they were present after the operation to witness the inventory of evidence recovered by police from the house of Quirante.
He also claimed that they presented a search warrant during the operation contrary to Quirante’s claims in her affidavit.
But Gica brothers failed to submit their counter-affidavits as ordered by the Visayas Ombudsman last August 2016. Their failure to submit the documents resulted to the graft investigators to rule on the complaint based on the evidence submitted by Quirante.
As to why their camp failed to file a counter-affidavit, Mayor Gica said their legal counsels may have overlooked them due to the pending, numerous complaints that they have to resolve.
Quirante was detained for drug charges in 2015. She posted bail, and was released last August 8, 2016.
Last February, the Visayas Ombudsman also ordered the suspension of Mayor Gica for a month after he was found guilty of allegedly tampering a receipt from a Chinese restaurant in Cebu City last 2014.
However, Mayor Gica was reinstated after the Ombudsman favorably ruled on Gica’s motion for reconsideration and reversed its decision to suspend him for a month.
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