A regional trial court in Ilocos Sur has ordered the arrest of a town mayor charged with criminal cases over the padlocking of a local beach resort with its operator and four-year-old son trapped inside.
Judge Raphiel Alzate of RTC, Branch 24, issued a warrant of arrest against Cabugao Mayor Josh Edward Cobangbang last Tuesday in connection with the non-bailable case of serious illegal detention and grave coercion recently filed by the Department of Justice.
In the two-page warrant, the lower court directed the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation to arrest the mayor and 18 other accused in the cases.
‘‘The Head of Office to whom this Warrant of Arrest is delivered for execution shall cause it to be executed within 10 days receipt thereof. Within 10 days after expiration of the period, the officer to whom it was assigned for execution shall make a return/report to the undersigned and in case of failure to execute the same, said officer shall state the reasons thereof,’’ stated the order obtained by reporters from the DOJ.
The warrant on the serious illegal detention case against the 24-year-old mayor specifically stated that the case is non-bailable.
The judge issued a separate warrant of arrest for the case of grave coercion against Cobangbang and others and set the bail bond at P36,000 for each of the accused.
The RTC issued the orders after upholding the finding of probable cause by the DOJ in the complaint filed by Virginia Ong stemming from the closure of the local government-owned Cabugao Beach Resort (CBR) in 2017.
The DOJ granted the petition for review filed by Ong and reversed the April 23, 2018 resolution of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office that dismissed the charges for lack of probable cause.
It reinstated the original resolution in Jan. last year and the findings of probable cause by investigating Senior Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Adriano Cabida, which the Provincial Prosecutor's Office reversed upon appeal by Cobangbang.
The DOJ ruled that elements of serious illegal detention were present in this case – a private individual is detained without lawful basis and that the detention was committed by public authority and the detainees were a woman and a minor. The offense is non-bailable.
The DOJ held that the mayor and his men are criminally liable under Articles 267 and 286 of the Revised Penal Code over the closure of CBR on Aug.24, 2017 by virtue of a municipal ordinance that only authorized the local executive to negotiate with Ong for resolution of the dispute on the ownership of the resort.
It said that Ong, her son and some of her employees were forced to stay in the padlocked resort until the following day until their lawyer and the police arrived.
"While it is undisputed that the municipality owns the CBR, it is equally true that ‘the power of a property (has) no authority to use force and violence to eject alleged usurpers who were in prior possession of it. They must file the appropriate action is court and should not take the law into their own hands," read the resolution signed by DOJ Undersecretary Deo Marco.
The DOJ said that respondents were "indeed participating and cooperating in the concerted effort to close CBR and to wrestle possession thereof from appellant and her companions."
"Fundamental is the rule that in no case may possession be acquired through force or intimidation, as long as there is a possessor who objects thereto, and that he who believes that he has an action or right to deprive another of the holding of a thing must invoke the aid of a competent court should the holder refuse to deliver the thing," it said.
The DOJ pointed out that the ordinance, which only authorized the mayor to negotiate and enter into a contract of lease with the qualified lessee, cannot be basis to padlock the resort and detain Ong inside.
It said that Ong was still in possession of the resort at the time of the incident "because there was no competent court order for her ejectment.”
Prior to the incident, the mayor demanded that Ong and her employees leave the CBR’s premises. But the latter refused to leave the resort, saying her lease contract was for a period of 20 years or until 2025.
Record showed that Ong took over the CBR after the previous operator, with whom she was an industrial partner, filed a quit claim in 2016. She continued paying the monthly rental, but the mayor objected to it and prompted the local government to pass a municipal ordinance to allow a new investor.
Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan's Fourth Division has ordered the 90-day suspension of a congressman from Iloilo due to his pending graft case.
Rep. Arcadio Gorriceta is facing a graft case that happened while he was a mayor of Pavia town in Iloilo.
“… such change of office does not bar his preventive suspension. The mandate of (the law) necessitates the suspension of any public official indicted upon a valid Information, regardless of their current position,” the anti-graft court said.
The order was sent to the Office of the Speaker for enforcement.
“The suspension of the accused shall automatically be lifted upon expiration of the 90-day period from the implementation of this Resolution,” the anti-graft court said.
The anti-graft court also said in its ruling that “…. the purpose of the mandatory preventive suspension under the law is to prevent further acts of malfeasance while in office, the intimidation of witnesses and the possibility of tampering with documentary evidence. It is to reinforce the principle that public office is a public trust.
"On this score, accused Gorriceta’s physical health is of no moment, considering that the only relevant consideration for the Court in applying the legal mandate for preventive suspension is the fact that accused presently holds public office.”