Monday, August 04, 2008 Suspend 6 in council: Jonas
MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes asked Malacañang to suspend members of the council whom he accused of harassing him and more than 1,000 job-order employees of the City Government.
He identified them as Councilors Victor Biaño, Alfonso Albaño Jr., Noeleen Borbajo, Procopio Villanueva, Editha Cabahug and Emiliano Rosal.
Three months ago, the six councilors complained before the Office of the President about Cortes’ orders that, they said, broke the law.
Cortes said their preventive suspension will “deter them from doing any further irreparable damage to the directly affected job-order employees” and the City Government. He also asked Malacañang to dismiss their complaint against him.
A preventive suspension is not a penalty, but is sometimes imposed to keep incumbent officials from interfering with a pending investigation.
The mayor accused the six councilors of dishonesty, oppression, abuse of authority and misconduct. He also said they violated the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
Cortes, however, did not include in the charge Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna and Councilors Diosdado Suico, Beethoven Andaya, Jefferson Ceniza, Jimmy Lumapas and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Gian Gobalani, who are also linked to the opposition.
According to the councilors’ complaint filed last April 30, the mayor misled the public by saying that the City Council no longer has the authority to hire personnel because a provision of the Local Government Code was amended.
Cortes, however, said that the complainants’ withholding of the salaries of job-order employees—by adding a provision in the appropriation ordinance that requires a council resolution before funds for salaries are disbursed—constitutes oppression, abuse of authority and misconduct.
The mayor also charged the complainants with dishonesty for not mentioning in their complaint the city legal officer’s opinion that it is the mayor who has the “sole and exclusive authority” over human resources and development in his unit.
Cortes said that if the six councilors are suspended, they won’t be able to coerce him to enforce the “invalid provision” of the appropriation ordinance.
In their complaint last April 30, Biaño, Albaño, Borbajo, Villanueva, Cabahug and Rosal accused Cortes of ordering finance officials and department heads to disregard a provision of the appropriation ordinance.
That provision requires an enabling resolution from the council before “lump sum funds” can be disbursed.
But the mayor said this constituted interference and usurpation of the chief executive’s function. Requiring this enabling resolution from the council is a strategy to paralyze his administration’s fiscal management, he said.
The complainant also pointed out the mayor’s allegedly wrong interpretation of Section 77 of the Local Government Code. The two parties use as basis two different annotated versions of the Local Government Code.
In the councilors’ version, the hiring of employees must be authorized by the City Council, while in the mayor’s version it is the Civil Service Commission that has that authority. (OCP)
