Jonas Cortes suspension: Dismissed Mandaue mayor to appeal Ombud move

Beleaguered mayor to turn to Court of Appeals on Ombud decision to junk MR on admin case

Dismissed Mayor Jonas Cortes file photo

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Dismissed Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes will appeal the decision of Ombudsman suspending him for one year without pay over the designation of an unqualified office-in-charge.

Cortes in his statement on the denial of his motion for reconsideration of the case said that he was not “satisfied” with the resolution.

“We are not satisfied with this as we believe ombudsman decisions should generally have some permanency.  Hence, we are appealing the case to the Court of Appeals,” said Cortes.

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Cortes cited a related case (Coyoca vs. Gabriel Romualdez Quisumbing) that involves the former mayor appointing as OIC-CSWS head “a person who is not eligible”.

“The Ombudsman decided to dismiss the case and absolve Mayor Luigi of the charges.  Now in our case involving the designation of Mr. Basaca, the Ombudsman is saying that they can always re-evaluate previous findings, implying that the case against Mayor Quisumbing was erroneously decided upon,” said Cortes.

Cortes’ motion for reconsideration was denied by the Ombudsman for lack of merit to warrant a reversal of its previous decision upholding that Cortes’ appointment was illegal.

The anti-graft body last August suspended Cortes for one year without pay for grave misconduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

The suspension stemmed from a case filed against him for the illegal appointment of Camilo Basaca as officer-in-charge of the City Social Welfare Services in 2022.

According to the Ombudsman, the designation of Basaca violated Section 13 (c) of Rule IV of the 2017 Omnibus Rules on Appointments and Other Human Resource Actions, which mandates that employees placed in designated career positions should hold permanent appointments.

Basaca was designated as CSWS OIC in July 2022 and only received a permanent appointment as community affairs officer IV in January 2023.

Aside from this case, Cortes has been dismissed from his position as mayor by the Ombudsman, which found him guilty of grave misconduct for allowing a batching plant (Suprea Philippines Development Corp.) to operate from 2020 to 2022 without the required business permit, sanitary permit, and environmental clearance.