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Monday, July 11, 2005
Party recommends job security for City’s resident ombudsman
IN CONSULTATION with other nongovernment organizations, a party-list group wants Cebu City’s resident ombudsman to be accountable to the people and not to the elected officials.
Akbayan is asking that whoever will be appointed will not be coterminous with the mayor and will be empowered to endorse complaints against Cebu City’s elected officials to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
It also asked that an ordinance creating the position be passed in the City Council, instead of an executive order from Mayor Tomas Osmeńa.
Alvin Dizon, Akbayan Cebu secretary general, said the resident ombudsman should be given a free hand and must answer for his actions, not to the mayor who will appoint him, but to the NGOs and civil society groups that endorsed him.
Mayor Osmeńa earlier announced he is allowing Akbayan to choose for him the City Hall resident ombudsman.
He, however, said the group does not have a free hand because he still has to determine whether the person has a “hidden agenda” or not.
After learning of the offer, Akbayan consulted 28 NGOs under the umbrella organization Kaabag sa Sugbo and came up with at least three recommendations. They also met with City Hall’s human resource department head Ralph Sevilla last Monday.
The Center for Participatory Governance, C-Cimpel, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Lihok Pilipina and Share a Child Movement are among Kaabag sa Sugbo’s members.
Sevilla briefed the NGOs on the order the executive department drafted to enumerate the functions and qualifications of the resident ombudsman.
Dizon said that if the resident ombudsman will be coterminous, he would not have the security to go beyond the present political leadership.
But an ordinance creating the position and the duties and responsibilities would give the person the mandate his office requires.
Dizon also said that if the resident ombudsman they will recommend comes across an nomaly involving City Hall’s elected officials, he should have the power the endorse the matter to the deputy ombudsman for the Visayas.
City Hall’s resident ombudsman, he added, would then become a witness to the investigation and will not simply serve an investigative function.
He said the Kaabag sa Sugbo NGOs also wanted that aside from the resident ombudsman, the deputy ombudsman’s position should not be limited only to lawyers.
“We need a person with a proven track record and credibility,” Dizon said.
The resident ombudsman, he added, could just tap a lawyer to assist him. RHM
(July 11, 2005 issue)
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