CITING the Court of Appeals’ (CA) decision, John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña said he is now back as mayor of Toledo City.
He said this in reaction to the order of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) 7 officer-in-charge Maria Loisella Lucino that Osmeña’s suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman will stay, despite the CA’s decision that cleared him of the charge that he refused to give Barangay Daanglungsod its share of the city’s real property taxes.
“I have been restored to my position and so, therefore, I am the mayor of Toledo and I do not know who that woman is, but she’d better study what she was told,” Osmeña told Superbalita Cebu yesterday.
The mayor has served all but four months of his suspension.
Lucino said that Osmeña’s suspension will continue because the CA has yet to resolve the motion of the Ombudsman and it hasn’t issued any injunctive relief order.
But for Osmeña, the CA has resolved the matter already, and the decision is final.
He called on Lucino to read the decision of the CA. He said he will not honor the remaining months of his suspension, which were supposed to start this week.
The Ombudsman suspended Osmeña for one year without pay for grave abuse of authority in 2017.
The suspension started to take effect last Sept. 14, 2017. But he returned to office last May after his lawyer, Inocencio dela Cerna, got the CA 19th Division to allow his petition for review.
In a decision last May 10, the CA overturned the decision of the Ombudsman. (SCG)