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Saturday, August 06, 2005
Burying sardines 'not grievous crime'
CEBU CITY -- Former Cebu City Hall Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) chief Nida Sistona will no longer contest the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas decision dismissing her from Cebu City Hall.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, though, bid for time in implementing the order because he was baffled by the decision that Sistona should be dismissed but can still hold public office.
"Why can't they make up their minds? Please give me time to analyze the schizophrenic decision of 'you're fired but can hold other office (position),'" Osmeña said of the anti-graft office.
He made it clear, however, that for him, Sistona did not commit a "grievous mistake" that would warrant dismissal from service.
The mayor said Sistona could have been just incompetent because burying 100 cans of sardines, for example, is a lesser crime compared with stealing one can, which involves malice.
Sistona ordered the surreptitious burial of 247 cans of sardines at the grounds of the Social Development Center (SDC) in Labangon after she discovered that they were already spoiled in July last year.
A DSWS employee, however, complained against what she did, prompting the ombudsman to investigate.
"It is still beyond logic why the goods became rotten when we know for a fact that there are many indigent who flock to the office of the DSWS every day to ask for food," read part of the decision that was released last July 19.
Graft investigator Mona Cabanes-Gillamac penned the decision, which Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro approved.
Osmeña said once Sistona is terminated from service, City Hall might hire her as a casual employee assigned to do tasks "in the lower levels."
Asked if she will file a motion of reconsideration, Sistona told Sun.Star Cebu in a brief interview that she will not contest the decision.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama, on the other hand, expressed sadness over Sistona's fate, saying she should exhaust all means to seek a reversal of the order.
After what Sistona did became public last year, the mayor replaced Sistona with his former secretary Cathy Yso, whom he said is currently doing a fine job.
Based on what he learned from Yso, the mayor said DSWS is a "compounded hornets' den of intrigeros (rumormongers)."
"You can make a tele-series out of that office. A lot of drama goes in that department. There is love, drama, naa tanan. Only murder is missing," he said.
Among the things he heard is that there were those who namedropped and boasted that they were close to the mayor.
With Yso around, the mayor said, no one does it anymore because it is clear it is Yso who is close to him and no one else in DSWS. (RHM/Sun.Star Cebu)
(August 6, 2005 issue)
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