THE Court of Appeals (CA) Special 18th Division has overturned the decision to dismiss Dumanjug Mayor Efren Guntrano “Gungun” Gica over charges of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct.
In a 14-page decision, CA Associate Justice Marilyn Lagura-Yap said that Gica cannot be held administratively accountable for misconduct he allegedly committed during his previous stint as vice mayor.
Yap cited the Aguinaldo Doctrine or the doctrine of condonation as basis for overturning the Ombudsman’s decision to dismiss Gica.
“His reelection in the May 9, 2016 elections is considered a condonation of any past misconduct he may have committed. It bears stressing that the body politic who elected petitioner into office as mayor in the May 9, 2016 election was the same body politic who previously elected him as vice mayor,” Yap said in her decision.
Though the Aguinaldo Doctrine was abandoned by the Supreme Court in 2015, the CA argued that the rule still applies in Gica's case. The charges against Gica were filed a year before the doctrine was abandoned by the SC.
Former Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia, who initiated the complaint against Gica, told SunStar Cebu that he plans to question the CA’s decision.
Garcia added that even if the administrative cases against Gica have been dismissed, the town mayor has to contend with the criminal charges filed against him before the Sandiganbayan.
Last July 2017, the Ombudsman ordered that Gica be meted with the penalty of dismissal from service and be disqualified perpetually from holding public office after he was found guilty of dishonesty and grave misconduct.
Garcia, the incumbent mayor’s rival, filed the charges against Gica before the anti-graft office back in 2014 over allegations that the then-vice mayor falsified receipts he secured from a restaurant in Cebu City from meals sponsored by the municipal government for a seminar for local budget officers.
Gica, in a separate interview, said he was happy with the decision.
“It proved, once and for all, that the allegations made by my political opponents were baseless and flimsy,” Gica said.
He plans to send a letter today to the Dumanjug municipal council so that he can formally assume office.