Both Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes have been dismissed from service?
It took a while for the whole matter to sink in.
The Office of the Ombudsman found them guilty of nepotism and grave misconduct, respectively.
Actually I was expecting another suspension for Rama, who has been serving a six-month preventive suspension since May for the non-payment of salaries of several regular City Hall employees. But this penalty of dismissal from service, which, according to SunStar Cebu’s Jerra Mae Librea, “will include the cancellation of his eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits except for accrued leave credits and perpetual disqualification for reemployment in public service” because he appointed his two brothers-in-law to work in City Hall, came as quite a shock.
A Filipino politician barred from public office because he allowed his wife’s relatives to work in the local government unit that he runs?
I don’t have any data, mind you, but based on experience, I have found that many people who work in capitols, city halls, municipal halls, even barangay halls, are related one way or another to incumbent officials or are there because of political accommodations.
Tell me I’m wrong.
So if Rama is guilty then almost all of our public officials are also guilty.
I know lawyers will have a field day pointing out what’s wrong with my argument. I mean, I and the rest of the public are not well-versed in the law. So what do we know?
But doesn’t this reek of hypocrisy? Oh who am I kidding?
Still, Rama, who is a lawyer, should have known better. He has been in public office for more than two decades. He, of all people, should have never let his guard down. He and the loyal people that surround him should have been on constant lookout.
It would have been of little consolation if he was found guilty of hiring his own relatives.
At the end of the day, Rama should have heeded the unwritten 11th Commandment: “Thou shall not confiance.”
The same can be said for Mayor Cortes over in next-door Mandaue City. He is serving a one-year suspension for appointing someone who lacked qualifications to a position.
This time, though, the ombudsman found him guilty of allowing the continuous operation of a cement batching plant without the necessary business and environmental permits.
According to SunStar Cebu’s Cherry Ann Virador, the plant’s operation was found to have “caused a public disturbance and health risks to the community.”
I’m sure the anti-graft office came up with the right decisions in both Rama and Cortes’ cases. I don’t doubt that. However, I do question the timing of the release of both decisions.
I’m pretty sure the Ombudsman is sitting on dozens of other complaints and cases, especially with the midterm elections coming up, and yet it was able to zero in on Rama and Cortes.
Last September, the Rama camp sought clarification from the Office of the Ombudsman regarding rumors that his nepotism case had already been decided after a City Hall official disclosed during a gathering that the Ombudsman had issued an unfavorable decision against the mayor.
They wanted to know how the official was able to have access to the decision.
And it wasn’t the first time.
A similar situation happened last May wherein a City Hall official also claimed to have read an Ombudsman order suspending Rama and spread the information a few days before the order was released.
Or maybe Rama and Cortes were just unlucky. Their cases just happened to be right in front of the Ombudsman when it was in the mood to issue decisions. So, lo and behold, both decisions come out during the filing of the certification of candidacy.
How serendipitous for their opponents!