Saturday, March 31, 2007 Mayor’s office empty; engineer almost mauled at barricaded Mandaue City Hall By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FROM the anti-graft office, the action on the suspension of local public officials for the allegedly overpriced lamps and streetlights moves to the Court of Appeals (CA).
Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano filed yesterday morning a petition for injunction against his impending preventive suspension for six months, without pay.
The 14-page document asks the appellate court to stop the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) from implementing the suspension.
Signed by lawyers Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, Felipe Velasquez and Victor Biaño, it asks that the order be lifted immediately in case it gets enforced before their petition could be heard.
Lawyer Stephen Ygnacio, acting assistant clerk of court, confirmed the filing of the petition in an interview but, citing the appellate court’s internal rules, refused to reveal the contents of the pleading.
The petition was time-stamped received at 11:32 a.m., barely beating the cut-off time for yesterday’s raffle.
It got assigned to the appellate court’s 18th Division manned by Executive Justice Arsenio Magpale, husband of Cebu Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale, and Associate Justices Agustin Dizon and Francisco Acosta.
Ygnacio later revealed that the petition got bumped to a “special division” instead because Dizon is on leave.
The division is designated as the “Special 18th Division” and will be made up of Magpale, Acosta and Associate Justice Stephen Cruz.
Ygnacio said the docket has been sent up to the special division for the justices to deliberate on.
“The ponente is Associate Justice Acosta,” he revealed.
A non-government group staged a lightning rally outside the Court of Appeals Cebu Station on M. Velez St., Cebu City but Ouano’s camp filed the petition two hours after the group left.
The delay in the filing was precipitated by the fact that the lawyers prepared it despite not having a copy of the suspension order.
Nearly mauled
A copy of the assailed order is a required attachment of any petition for certiorari and injunction before the appellate court.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas attempted to serve the suspension order on Ouano at City Hall but he was nowhere to be found. (See related story)
Supporters also gathered outside the Mandaue City Hall and screened those who wanted to get inside, in an attempt to prevent anybody from the anti-graft office and the DILG to come in and enforce the order.
Engineer Peter Dy, proprietor of the PLD Construction and Development Corp., nearly got mauled after getting mistaken for a DILG executive. He was in Mandaue City for a separate transaction.
However, Michael Moneva, special assistant to Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago, got in without a hassle.
He hand-carried a copy of the suspension order for enforcement, but was not barred entry. He was still unable to serve the order, though, as Ouano was not at City Hall.
In the end, Biaño went to the anti-graft office to get a copy of the order.
Strong
“I told him we were even doing them the favor by serving the suspension order because we know that they will immediately go to the Court of Appeals for a restraining order, and we know that a copy of the order is necessary,” Acting Visayas Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago said in a separate interview.
She said they gave the DILG a copy of the suspension orders for implementation, but decided to enforce it themselves because the DILG might not have enough people.
Tanodbayan Merce-ditas Gutierrez ordered the immediate preventive suspension of Ouano, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 Director Roberto Lala and Assistant Directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo and 14 others last Thursday.
She approved the recommendations of Graft Investigators Sarah Jo Vergara, Jane Aguilar and Sam Malazarte on the suspension that sought to protect the evidence.
In granting the recommendation, Gutierrez acknowledged that the evidence against the respondents appears to be strong and that the officials might use their positions to tamper with evidence.
