Saturday, May 24, 2008 Jonas sets 3 conditions to ‘settle’ differences with ex-MCC official
MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes has set three conditions to an amicable settlement with Dr. Paulus Mariae Canete, who has been replaced as administrator of the Mandaue City College (MCC) and is now being sued for graft by the mayor.
“(He has to) clear his name, account for the school’s money to the last centavo and be man enough to face the consequences of his action.”
Dr. Elmer Ripalda, speaking for Cañete, said accounting of the school’s funds is not a problem but using which MCC charter as basis, is.
Ripalda said they have finished doing a financial report covering the period April 2006 to May 2007 and will work on one for June 2007 to date. They can submit the second report as soon as the Mandaue City Government releases to them the records.
The City is conducting an inventory of MCC records in its former campus in barangay Ibabao.
Ripalda said their group wants the amended MCC charter, covered in Ordinance No. 10-2005-419, to be the basis of the discussions. The mayor said it should be the original, covered in Ordinance No. 10-2005-324A.
At the press conference yesterday, Cortes said he will only go into a settlement if Canete agreed to his terms.
“No deal unless Canete complies first,” the mayor said when asked on the move of Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol to have the two of them settle their differences out of court.
Apostol heard Canete’s side last Tuesday and Cortes’s last Thursday.
The mayor said Canete has to account for the school’s money and be accountable for his actions while he was MCC administrator.
The mayor has sued Canete before the ombudsman for unlawful appointment of personnel and malversation of public funds.
Cañete had hired school personnel who had run and lost in the May 2007 elections without regard for the one-year ban on hiring of election losers.
The mayor has also accused Cañete of refusing to turn over the school’s bank statements and the tuition collection. The mayor has replaced Canete as MCC administrator, a decision that Canete has not acknowledged.
When told that Ripalda gave copies of MCC’s financial report to the media and that a copy was given to the mayor through Sun.Star Cebu, Cortes refused to see the copy.
He said there are agencies such as the Commission on Audit (COA) that check how funds are spent.
Cortes was also questioned why Canete submitted the financial report only now when the Mandaue City Council and then acting mayor Amadeo Seno Jr. had long been asking for it.
Ripalda, for his part, said submitting a report of the school’s finances is not a problem. The two parties will need to agree on which MCC charter, the amended or original, is to be used.
He said that if the mayor thinks that the amended ordinance is not legitimate, then the original ordinance is not legitimate as well.
Ripalda said Mandaue City Administrator Briccio Boholst should have filed for declaratory relief and let the court decide which charter is legal.
To this, Boholst said, “Why don’t they petition the court?” (OCP)
