City officials’ suspension Initial findings ‘irrelevant’

Whatever recommendation made by the hearing officer on the calamity aid case was “irrelevant” and a “non-issue,” the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said.

In a press statement, DILG Undersecretary for Operations Edwin Enrile said the initial recommendation of hearing officer Isidro Barrios III was still subject to review by his division chief, the legal department chief and then the concerned undersecretaries.

“(I)n the DILG, like any government office or private office for that matter, a subordinate lawyer initially tasked to handle a legal matter may have an initial recommendation on a legal matter, but that initial recommendation is further reviewed, discussed, and evaluated by his/her superiors,” Enrile said.

He defended Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento from insinuations that the latter did not act on Barrios’ findings, which recommended the dismissal of allegations of grave misconduct and abuse of authority against Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 city councilors.

Enrile said Sarmiento was not aware of Barrios’s recommendation.

He said what reached Sarmiento’s office was a recommendation addressed to the Office of the President endorsing the suspension order against the city officials.

The city officials were ordered suspended for six months by the Office of the President for giving Cebu City Hall employees and themselves a P20,000 calamity assistance each even if they were not affected by supertyphoon Yolanda in November 2013.

In a press conference yesterday, Rama said the hearing officer’s recommendations should have been given weight in the final decision or that another set of hearings and investigation should have been conducted by the DILG.

“Tell it to the Marines. Why are they putting an investigating officer and they don’t give any credit? Then there should be no investigation. Mel, you’re not a lawyer. I’m a lawyer,” Rama said when sought for comment on the DILG’s statement.

“They can easily say that. If that is going to be the case, you mean a secretary does not know that there is a serious investigation being conducted? Come on. Please tell it to the Marines. Don’t give me that crap,” he added.

Rama said he could not believe that Sarmiento was not aware of the Barrios recommendation.

“I don’t know because friends help. But enemies do not. It hurts me that he’s (Sarmiento) not doing anything. He’s supposed to be a part of a Cebuano community. Please, Mel. Please. Oscars Award is still forthcoming. Famas Award, I don’t know. This is no time for showbiz or drama. Please, please,” Rama said.

The DILG did not specify in their statement who made the new recommendation.

“In disciplinary cases involving city mayors, the DILG is only an investigating authority for the Office of the President (the disciplining authority), and in the case of Mayor Rama et al., the Office of the President exercising is own discretion and taking into consideration the recommendation of the DILG, found Mayor Rama et al. Liable for suspension,” Enrile said.

“But that suspension cannot be implemented without the clearance of Comelec given that it is election period,” he added.

The Comelec en banc decided the other day to defer until after the May 9 elections discussion on the DILG’s application to exempt from the election ban the suspension of Rama and 13 others.

Rama and other impleaded city officials welcomed the decision.

“Praise the Lord. And that has provided us a period of relief and brought justice temporarily in our feet,” Rama said, admitting that he felt “hurt” and “stressed” when news of the suspension order came out.

He said he will also discuss with his lawyers their options.

“May 9 is not much of my concern. We will crush them. We will have the victory. 11-0. That is what I call commensurate to the hurt, the stress and the bother that this whole exercise have caused to yours truly and to the vice mayor and even those members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod,” he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, they have caused hurt and wounded feeling upon me. And I’m going to tell them, I will have that matter remembered,” he added.