GARCIA
Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia is facing yet another disqualification case at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
This time, it was the turn of the Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (Bakud), the Durano-led political party based in Cebu’s fifth district, to petition the poll body to disallow the female legislator from running for governor in next year’s elections.
Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, a member of Bakud and a candidate for governor, said Garcia is not fit to hold the province’s top position since the latter was barred by the Office of the Ombudsman from holding public office after she was found liable over an unauthorized project to backfill a largely underwater property when she was governor of Cebu in 2012.
The Ombudsman’s verdict, Magpale said, was final and executory.
“She (Garcia) should be disqualified,” she said in an interview.
Last Monday, veteran Cebu lawyer Edgar Gica also filed a petition to disqualify Garcia, accusing the congresswoman of making false claims in her Certificate of Candidacy (COC), also in relation to the Ombudsman’s order to bar her from holding public office.
In his petition, Gica argued that Garcia made it appear in her COC that she was not held liable for any case that carries the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office which has become final and executory.
Sought for comment, Garcia said her opponents were doing everything to stop her from returning to the Capitol.
“These are desperate moves of desperate people already seeing a looming political defeat in the coming elections,” she said in a text message to Cebu Daily News.
Garcia, who has appealed the Ombudsman ruling and thus insisted it was not yet final, said she was confident that the disqualification cases against her will not prosper.
“They themselves (Gica and Bakud legal counsels), as lawyers, know that too,” she said.
Gica and Bakud filed their separate petitions against Garcia at the Comelec in Manila last Monday although it was only on Tuesday when Gica publicly released the petition he filed. Magpale told reporters of Bakud’s petition yesterday, a Wednesday.
Magpale said Bakud lawyers personally handed over the petition to the poll body although she was tight-lipped on its contents.
“It is expected that a lot of petitions will be filed against her (Garcia) because of her previous case. Anybody can file a petition against her as long as they are voters,” she said.
Long process
Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said disqualification cases usually take time and it is likely that the name of Garcia will still be included in the printed ballots for next year’s polls.
“After the filing of cases, Garcia will be asked to answer the accusations. Later on, there will be a preliminary conference. Afterwards, the series of hearings will commence,” he explained.
In case Garcia wins the gubernatorial race but will eventually be disqualified, Castillano said the candidate for the same position with the second highest number of votes will take the post.
Another prominent lawyer and a former Cebu vice governor, Democrito Barcenas, on the other hand, believed that the petitions to disqualify Garcia had legal grounds.
“She (Garcia) could even be charged with perjury for making it appear in her COC that she was not held liable in a case,” he said in an interview.
“Her ‘no’ answer to the said question regarding her liability refers to a material fact and her false statement will even render her liable for perjury,” he added.
Item 22 of the COC forms posed the question, “Have you ever been found liable for an offense which carries with it the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office which has become final and executory?”
Garcia answered “no” in her COC.
The case
In January 2018, the Office of the Ombudsman found Garcia administratively liable over the P24.47-million project to backfill submerged portions of the controversial P98-million Balili property in Barangay Tinaan, Naga City, without the authority from the Provincial Board while she was still Cebu governor.
Garcia was meted a penalty of dismissal from service and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
By that time, however, Garcia was no longer governor and was already a member of the House of Representatives, representing the third district of
Cebu and was even the deputy speaker.
Then House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez did not implement the order, saying it was violative of the Constitution.
Garcia filed a petition for review at the Court of Appeals (CA) with a prayer for the issuance of the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The CA denied the prayer for a TRO. Garcia has filed a motion for reconsideration to the TRO, which remains pending before the CA. /WITH REPORTS FROM CORRESPONDENT JESSA MAE SOTTO
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