Saturday, October 04, 2008 Editorials: Turnarounds and Mayor Soc
THE problem is not so much that two of the complainants in the case against Talisay City Mayor Soc Fernandez’s adopted son, Joavan, have filed affidavits of desistance with the Talisay City prosecutor’s office.
City Prosecutor Marshall Rubia said his office will still elevate the filing of the criminal case against Joavan before the Regional Trial Court especially because one of the complainants has not filed his own affidavit of desistance.
What is disturbing are the rumors swirling around the turnaround of the two complainants and the revelations of Oscar Abellana, father of Osbert, one of the two teenagers who accused Joavan of abducting and mauling them.
The rumors and revelations tended to point to Mayor Soc as having a hand in the filing of the affidavits of desistance of
Winston Abellana, the other mauling victim, and his mother Mercedita.
Government resource
One can argue that there is nothing wrong with the accused or his/her relatives settling the case with the complainants, like what the mayor reportedly has been doing in the cases involving his adopted son.
But a thin line separates settlement and obstruction of justice, considering that Fernandez is a high-ranking City Government official.
In this instance, reports say the mayor may not have limited the effort to settle the case using his personal assets but also utilized the influence of his office and the resources of the City.
Oscar showed reporters a document signed by the mayor designating him as a dispatcher in Tabunok even as Winston was reportedly seen carrying a punch card, meaning he may have been given an instant appointment as government employee.
Resignation
Claims of Mayor Soc hiring as City Hall employees the complainants or witnesses in the cases against Joavan in exchange for their settling the case have surfaced before, thus the mayor himself should not consider the recent reports as unfair.
Instead, what is unfair and questionable is his refusal to distinguish personal from government resource in his effort to extricate his son from the legal mess he is in.
If the rumors and revelations surrounding the signing of the affidavits of desistance are true, the mayor can be held criminally liable and this can be used as argument for well-meaning people in Talisay to push for his resignation.
