Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Tomas hits Capitol for forum shopping
IN dispelling the Garcia camp’s accusations, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday reminded Rep. Pablo “Pabling” Garcia that he does not share the Garcia family’s values of holding on to government positions.
Osmeña also said that the Cebu Provincial Government could be liable for “forum shopping” when it files the motion for inhibition against Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Bienvenido Saniel from the nullification case the Capitol filed in relation to the row over appointments at the water district.
In his news conference yesterday, the mayor reacted to the statements of Garcia, who he said was speaking on his behalf.
“May I just react to what Pabling Garcia said. He’s speaking on my behalf, saying that I will not allow that no Osmeña will be left in politics and therefore I will not support Mike Rama, something to that effect. He’s using his standards and thinking that I share the same values as his,” Osmeña said.
“The Garcias want to occupy every position in the land. Father, son, nephew, daughter, lolo, et cetera. I’m not like that and I can prove it,” he continued.
The mayor reminded Garcia, a former three-term governor, that in 1995, when he was still entitled to run for a third term, he decided not to seek reelection and gave way
to former mayor Alvin Garcia, who was his vice mayor that time.
He said he willingly gave up the opportunity to run “when it was served on a silver platter.”
“So please don’t use the same standards on me because I don’t share the same values in trying to hand on to a position...This is the way they (Garcias) look at things, this is their values, that they have to hang on to everything. So please don’t think that I share the same values,” said Osmeña.
Even while he took a break from politics and despite his close relations with the President, Osmeña said he never applied for any other government position and never
asked President Arroyo for any directorship for his wife Margot.
He also reminded Garcia that it was an Osmeña, the former governor Emilio Osmeña, who endorsed Pabling’s son Winston to be the president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System.
“So it’s highly presumptuous to think that we’re like them. And I’d like to warn the Cebuanos to be careful with people who think they can own and control everything, and I’m referring to the Garcias. I won’t be surprised if there will be a Garcia in every district in the next election,” the mayor added.
In the same news conference, he said he hopes that Saniel will have the political will to do his job, despite the Capitol’s plan to ask the court to have him inhibit from the case.
The nullification case that Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia filed against the appointment of businessman Joel Mari Yu to the board of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) was assigned to Saniel’s sala.
It was Saniel who earlier dismissed the gover-nor’s petition for declaratory relief, asking the court to stop Osmeña from further appointing MCWD board members.
Osmeña believes that asking Saniel to inhibit is a form of forum shopping.
“It’s probably legal but I think it’s a form of forum shopping...I hope Judge Saniel will have the political will to do his job. I have no connection to Saniel. When the case filed was dismissed, I guess he just did what he had to do. And of course the Province was unhappy because they think that when they file a case, we’re automatically guilty,” he added. (LCR)
