Wednesday, April 30, 2008 CA grants petition of DPWH officials
THE Court of Appeals (CA) has granted a petition that allows seven of the nine Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 officials earlier impleaded in the Asean lamppost issue to submit a counter-affidavit.
The ruling does not reverse the Office of the Ombudsman’s ruling to dismiss all nine officials, together with a handful of others from the city governments of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, from government service, clarified CA Acting Clerk of Court Stephen Ygnacio.
It also does not invalidate Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez’s ruling to indict all of the officials before the Sandiganbayan for violations of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.
Decision
“The ruling simply treats the petition for certiorari that they filed against the Nov. 6, 2007 order of the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said, and not the resolution and decision the anti-graft office released last April 21.
Penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier with the concurrence of Associate Justices Francisco Acosta and Florito Macalino of the 20th Division, the ruling orders the anti-graft office to furnish ex-DPWH 7 director Roberto Lala, assistant directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo, division chiefs Pureza Fernandez, Luis Galang and Cresencio Balogor, as well as regional attorney Agustinito Hermoso, copies of documents that they said were withheld from them.
CA gave the anti-graft office five days to comply. It also gave the seven petitioners, all represented by lawyer Joey Luis Wee, 10 days to submit their counter-affidavits and other controverting documents.
Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Santiago, in a separate interview, said they will endorse the matter to the Office of the Legal Affairs, which is based in Manila.
“It is up to them now to decide what to do. The Office of the Solicitor General can also file a motion for reconsideration,” she said.
She agreed, though, that the ruling does not reverse the findings of the anti-graft office.
Dismissal
Nor does it stop the implementation of the dismissal order Tanodbyan Merceditas Gutierrez issued against all the public officials involved, she said.
Earlier reports, not from Sun.Star Cebu, said the CA had reversed the anti-graft office in the lamppost case.
According to the 14-page ruling, promulgated last April 23 or two days after the anti-graft resolution and decision on the lamppost case came out, the petitioners should be given copies of the documents to ensure that due process is observed.
“Certainly there is nothing internal about transactions that affect third parties, there is nothing less public about matters that are intended to cause prejudice to others - whether rightly or wrongly,” the ruling read.
“Due process entails that they be divulged to those who are to be adversely affected and the decision out of any quasi-judicial action must be served on the parties to it - nothing more, nothing less,” it added.
The Nov. 6 order of the anti-graft office denied the petitioners’ motion to obtain copies of several pages, documents and attachment to a final evaluation report that detailed the alleged overpricing of lamps purchases. The Ombudsman said the documents were either just copies or “devoid of any probative value.”
‘Effective immediately’
Tanodbyan Gutierrez, in the April 21 ruling, ordered 18 of the 24 officials originally impleaded in the lamppost scam, including the nine people from the DPWH 7, sacked from government service for grave misconduct. The order was “effective immediately.”
Among those dismissed is former Mandaue city mayor Thadeo Ouano. Though he is no longer in office, the penalty against him is to be deemed implemented and “accordingly reflected in his record of public service.”
He is now represented by the former head of the anti-graft office’s Office of Legal Affairs, lawyer Andrew Ammuyutan.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza is spared from dismissal. His re-election last May gave him immunity from administrative cases stemming from acts committed during his previous term. (KNR)
