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Monday, July 18, 2005
City hits Ombud's decision, elevates case to Appellate Court
By Edmund Sestoso
MAYOR Agustin Perdices filed Monday before the Court of Appeals (CA) a 25-page petition for review on certiorari for what he and his co-complainants claim as grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction by the Ombudsman.
The petition followed a decision by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (Odomoleo) on June 2 dismissing for lack of merit the City Government's motion to reconsider its decision exonerating former mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo and five other respondents for wrongdoing in the procurement of three heavy equipment amounting to not less than P25 million.
City Legal Officer Neil Ray Lagahit said the City Government received the Odomoleo's decision on June 30 and is now banking on the CA to reverse the Ombudsman's decision.
Lagahit stressed that the action of the Ombudsman is "judicially reviewable" under Section 1 of Article 8 of the Constitution.
He said that the Constitutional provision states that judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice "...to determine whether or not there had been grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government".
In their motion to the CA, Perdices and his co-complainants sought to set aside the Odomoleo's January 3, 2005 decision clearing Remollo and his co-defendants that include former Dumaguete City administrator Ricardo Gonzales, Daylinda Villarosa, Roman Pinero, Erlinda Tumongha, and Leon Ty of TKC, the supplier of the controversial heavy equipment.
Aside from the mayor the other complainants are Manuel Patrimonio, George E. Sy, Rommel L. Erames, and Samuel D. Dicen
Two of the defendants, former officer-in-charge City treasurer Tumongha and city accountant Villarosa, have since died almost four years after Perdices and his group filed the complaint before the Ombudsman for the Visayas.
But on February 21, 2005, the Ombudsman dismissed the complaint.
(July 17, 2005 issue)
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