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Friday, July 07, 2006
Palace asked to suspend Baguio mayor
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
JADEWELL Parking Systems Corporation filed an urgent motion before the Office of the President (OP) for the immediate implementation of the suspension order against Baguio City Mayor Braulio Yaranon and a supplemental plea in support of the move Thurday.
This, as Yaranon said in the Ugnayan media forum that the suspension meted upon him was not yet effective and shall only be effective after a period of appeal that had a duration of at least 15 more days.
In a memorandum he issued to all City Hall department and office heads last July 5, the mayor admitted that he already received the decision of the Office of the President which imposed two successive six-month suspensions on him.
"This will formally inform you that the suspension is effective only after the period of appeal, and no appeal has been perfected. The undersigned, therefore, continues performance of official duties as such," Yaranon said.
"In the interest of public service, you are hereby directed to act accordingly on all documents and matters signed or approved by the undersigned," he added.
But, in filing the urgent motion yesterday, Jadewell counsels disclosed that "the aforementioned memorandum is a gross misstatement of the law, the rules and the letter of decision because as adverted to in the urgent motion, the decision of the Office of the President is immediately executory and is not stayed by either an appeal or a motion for reconsideration, hence, the memorandum evinces a clear defiance of the authority of the Office of the President which, if logically followed, would render nugatory the law, the rules and the intent of the decision against the respondent."
Citing Section 68 of the 1991 Local Government Code, Jadewell counsels quoted it as stating that "an appeal shall not prevent a decision from becoming final and executory."
"The respondent shall be considered as having been placed under preventive suspension, during the pendency of an appeal, in the event he wins such appeal. (But) in the event the appeal results in exoneration, he shall be paid his salary and such other emoluments during the pendency of the appeal," it was explained in the same section.
In their urgent motion for the immediate implementation of the suspension order, the same counsels appealed that "it is now urgently necessary for the decision of Your Excellency to be now implemented because the respondent is now acting in a manner as would seriously affect the intents of the said decision in that he is reportedly repeatedly been proclaiming to the citizens of Baguio that he cannot be suspended until an appeal and/or reconsideration of the decision shall have been finally made."
"Wherefore, it is respectfully prayed that the decision be now ordered immediately implemented by directing the Department of the Interior & Local Government, or any other such government authority as may be chosen, to enforce the dispositions thereof and ordering the vice mayor of the City of Baguio to immediately assume the position of the mayor," they added.
In response to this, Jadewell president Rogelio Tan said in a telephone interview Thursday that "the mayor and his political patrons are now moving Heaven and Earth, even up to the extent of committing `communication sabotage,’ to delay or try to prevent his suspension.
He explained that although President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Executive Eduardo Ermita "are not in on this," he discovered Thursday that "some minor functionaries in Malacañang, who we found out are political allies and patrons of Mayor Yaranon, are using all kinds of delaying tactics to stay his suspension."
On the other hand, Jadewell general manager Norma Tan also said she has "nothing else to ask the mayor except, who sat as presiding officer of the City Council, when the pay parking ordinance was passed?"
"In the first place, if this ordinance, which he claims is illegal, was not passed by the former City Council presided over by his wife, the former Councilor Lilia Yaranon, it would never have been approved by the incumbent mayor at that time," she added.
(July 7, 2006 issue)
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