Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Palace to Jonas: Answer charges
MALACAÑANG has ordered Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes to answer within 15 days the complaint filed by six city councilors against him for dishonesty, oppression, misconduct in office, abuse of authority and culpable violation of the Constitution.
In a fax message to Cortes, Atty. Rowena Turingan-Sanchez, Director IV of the Office of the President, directed the mayor to submit his verified answer, not a motion to dismiss, on the complaint dated April 30, 2008.
Biaño said the complaint stemmed from Cortes’ two executive orders which, they say, contradict provisions of the City’s appropriation ordinance and other provisions of the law.
These prompted Councilors Victor Biaño, Alfonso Albaño Jr., Ma. Noeleen Borbajo, Procopio Villanueva, Editha Cabahug and Emiliano Rosal to file their complaint before the Office of the President.
Biaño’s complaint focused on Executive Order 13, which ordered all finance officials to disregard and set aside a provision of the budget ordinance requiring an enabling resolution in disbursing funds from lump sum appropriations.
Biaño also accused Cortes of deliberately misquoting Section 77 of the Local Government Code by stating that the hiring of job-order workers must be authorized by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Section 77 states that the “chief executive of every local government unit shall be responsible for human resources and development in his unit and shall take all personnel actions in accordance with the Constitutional provisions on civil service, pertinent laws, and rules and regulations thereon, including such policies, guidelines and standards as the CSC may establish.”
The same section, however, also states that “the local chief executive may employ emergency or casual employees or laborers paid on a daily wage or piecework basis and hired through job orders for local projects authorized by the council concerned, without need of approval or attestation by the CSC.”
Sought for reaction, Cortes said he will give his answer within 15 days, considering that the matter raised before the Office of the President is just a complaint, not an investigation.
For his part, Mandaue City Administrator Briccio Boholst believes Cortes was right when he issued that order.
Once the City Council approves an appropriation ordinance, there’s nothing else that needs to be done for it to be implemented, he added.
“If they indicate there an enabling resolution, that is already superfluity,” he said.
Boholst also insisted that it is the CSC which authorizes the hiring of personnel.
When Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna clarified, according to Biaño, that it is the City Council and not the CSC that has the authority, Cortes issued Executive Order 14 disregarding the vice mayor’s pronouncements. (OCP)
