Did it say, as Tanodbayan Ditas Gutierrez said in her order suspending Mandaue Mayor Ted Ouano, Lapu-Lapu Mayor Boy Radaza and 17 other officials, the “glaring difference” between actual cost and contract price “constitutes strong evidence of guilt”?
In resisting the suspension order, Ted said that it declared guilt even before he could present his side. What Gutierrez said may seem to be prejudgment, rash and unfair.
It is not. It referred to the facts as they appeared in the fact-finding inquiry, but still to be verified in the formal investigation.
Confusing? Maybe, but the ombudsman first does fact-finding before investigating. It’s in the formal investigation, the stage where they are now, that Mayors Ted and Boy and 17 others get the chance to be heard.
They know the drill
The suspension is preventive, to avert tampering with witnesses and documents. No conclusion of guilt and not a punishment.
Mayor Ted knows and his lawyers know the legal drill. Why then is he reading the Tanodbayan order differently?
He’s playing up to the public that’s judging him and son Jonkie who’s running for his father’s post. And he’s using the Tandobayan’s unqualified conclusion as support to his gripe.
Mayor Ted can still show that it’s not what the Tanodbayan thinks it is: “Overpricing is illusion, right? It isn’t? Whatever, I had no part in it.”
