BARELY three months after he was reinstalled in his post, Dumanjug Mayor Efren Guntrano Gica is bracing for yet another suspension.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas suspended for one year without pay Gica and his brother, Councilor Erwin Gica, after finding them guilty of simple misconduct and oppression for leading the police in raiding a house without a search warrant in 2015.
“The respondents’ presence and participation in the search despite the absence of a search warrant clearly constituted misconduct,” read the Ombudsman’s decision.
Mayor Gica downplayed the ombudsman’s order as a political move.
He said the prosecutor’s office dismissed for lack of evidence the complaint against them over the same incident.
Gica said his counsels may have overlooked the ombudsman’s order for them to file their counter-affidavits due to the many complaints they have to answer during the campaign period.
He said their lawyers are now drafting their motion for reconsideration of the ombudsman’s suspension order.
Last March 15, 2017, the Ombudsman-Visayas reinstated Efren Gica as mayor of Dumanjug, Cebu more than a month after he was sacked for allegedly tampering with a restaurant receipt amounting to P11,435 and bloating it to P21,435 in 2014.
In a four-page joint order, Portia Pacquiao, graft investigation and prosecution officer ordered Gica restored to his position after realizing that the anti-graft office issued the resolution and decision without considering the respondent’s defense.
Last February, the Ombudsman-Visayas dismissed Gica from service for grave misconduct and dishonesty.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed by former mayor Nelson Garcia, who accused Gica of tampering with a Ding Qua Qua receipt worth P11,435 so it would appear to be P21,435 last Aug. 12, 2014. But the ombudsman reversed its decision and granted Gica’s motion for reconsideration.
Gica argued that he did not receive any order from the ombudsman. He said he was not given “substantial justice and due process” by allowing him to submit his counter-affidavit.
In the case, which led to officials’ suspension, Marlene Quirante reportedly filed the complaints against the Gica brothers and police officers Sabellano Saromines, Danny Camero, and Marvin Libradilla before the Prosecutor’s Office.
Quirante accused the respondents of violating Art. 254 of the Revised Penal Code.
Quirante, of Barangay Pawa, Dumanjug, also filed a separate complaint for arbitrary detention against the policemen before the prosecutor’s office.
In her affidavit, Quirante, 29, said she went to their piggery to get piglets to be sold to buy medicines for her sick child last Aug. 9, 2015.
The respondents later arrived and searched Quirante’s house allegedly without a search warrant.
Councilor Gica allegedly instructed Quirante to get inside the house, but she refused since the respondents did not have a search warrant. The police handcuffed Quirante and forced her to get inside.
Quirante said that their belongings were loaded onto a government vehicle parked outside their house. Quirante was released from detention after posting bail on drug charges.
Last Aug. 8, 2016, the ombudsman directed the Gica brothers and their co-respondents to submit their counter-affidavits, but they failed to submit any.
This prompted the graft investigators to resolve the complaint based on evidence submitted by Quirante.
In the decision, the ombudsman found the Gica brothers liable for simple misconduct and oppression and suspension without pay for one year.
Quirante’s witnesses identified the Gica brothers’ presence and participation in the operation without the search warrant.
The ombudsman also directed the Department of Interior and Local Government to enforce the suspension order and submit a compliance report to the ombudsman within five days.