Thursday, November 03, 2005
Ombud drops complaint against Kamagayan’s chief
The anti-graft office has dismissed the criminal and administrative complaints against a barangay captain, who allegedly threatened to shoot a resident that claimed ownership of a market vending stall.
The stall, upon the resident’s permission, had served as the office of a previous barangay chief of Kamagayan during his term. But when the official’s term ended, the resident took over the stall as lessee.
The incumbent bara-ngay captain, however, allegedly padlocked the stall and threatened to shoot the resident who confronted him about the closure.
The official maintained that the barangay owns the stall.
Deputy Ombudsman Primo Miro approved the findings of Graft Investigator Mona Chica Gillamac, who found no basis to file a case against Barangay Captain Celestino Avila of Kamagayan, Cebu City.
The anti-graft office said it has no jurisdiction over property conflicts. The office also found no basis to charge the barangay captain for making the threat.
The probe, though, found the situation ironic.
For a premier city like Cebu, where public officials travel in comfort using government-bought luxury cars, some barangays still do not have offices from which officials can serve constituents.
Frontline
Barangays are seen as the frontline in government service.
Diogenes Avila, a resident of Kamagayan and the respondent’s nephew, filed the complaint against Celestino before the anti-stock room after getting it from Mansueto. But last May 17, an errand boy told Diogenes that Celestino forcibly entered the stall and barricaded it.
He said Celestino and Cabaging then padlocked the main door and nailed ply-boards over the entrance.
He said he approached the incumbent barangay captain and asked for an explanation, but Celestino threatened to shoot him instead.
On May 25, Diogenes again went to the barangay captain. This time, he brought with him a certification by the market manager of the Sto. Niño de Cebu Developer Inc., that he has rights over the stall.
But on May 31, 2005, the barangay captain sent Diogenes a letter, saying he wasn’t honoring the graft office. He also impleaded barangay tanod Demetrio Cabaging.
In his complaint-affidavit, Diogenes said he was the legal lessee of stall 39 of the dry goods section of the Citi Center Complex in Barangay Kamagayan.
Diogenes allowed then Kamagayan barangay chief Mansueto Avila to use the stall as his office during his term, but promptly got it back after Mansueto’s term expired after the July 2002 elections.
Barricade
The barangay didn’t have an office of its own. The barangay chief before Mansueto, Simplicio Miro, even had to use his own house as his office during his term.
Diogenes said he began using the stall again as certification.
When asked to submit a counter-affidavit, Celestino denied the charge and said it was the complainant who made derogatory
remarks against him.
He said the complainant was angry because the barangay was exercising its right of ownership over the stall.
Police outpost
Some residents support his claim, adding that stall 39 used to be a police outpost.
In resolving the actual charge, Gillamac laid the premise that the anti-graft office does not have the authority to pass judgment on cases involving conflicts over property.
It can, she said, only take cognizance of one aspect of Diogenes’ complaint that the respondent allegedly tried to shoot him last May 17.
And for that, Gillamac said, there is no case.
Gillamac said the complainant failed to adduce any evidence supporting this.
“While complainant admits that some people had witnessed the incident, he failed to present the testimony of these alleged witnesses,” she said. (KNR)
(November 3, 2005 issue)
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