EIGHT Toledo City councilors are facing criminal and administrative charges for their alleged refusal to confirm the appointment of lawyer Teresito Largo as acting city legal officer.
Assisted by lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, Largo has filed criminal and administrative cases in the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against the eight councilors, whom he accused of grave misconduct, abuse of authority and discretion, and oppression prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Largo asked Deputy Ombudsman Paul Elmer Clemente to stop the councilors from exercising their power “in a manner extravagantly, whimsically, capriciously and unlawfully.”
“Respondents have misused their power of concurrence. They misused it in a wantonly and capriciously excessive or extravagant manner, contrary to the natural or legal rules for its use,” said Largo.
The respondents are City Councilors Jay Sigue, Antonio Borja Jr., Merly Abad, Rogelio Caburnay Sr., Zosimo Abellanosa, Dario Surig, Leo Dolino, and Marjorie Perales.
Largo is an appointee as city legal officer of Acting Mayor Antonio Yapha Jr. last Jan. 12, 2018. (Yapha is acting mayor while Mayor John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña serves his suspension.)
Despite having met all the qualifications for the position, Largo said, the city councilors, during their session on Jan. 30, 2018, passed a resolution refusing to concur with Yapha’s endorsement.
Largo said this move was baseless and in contrast to the legal opinion provided by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Opinion 26-2007. He suspected that a political motive was behind the councilors’ refusal to concur with his appointment.
“They have trampled upon the appointive prerogative of the city mayor and, in effect, are already substituting their discretion in the process for that of the mayor’s,” said Largo in his complaint. (GMD)