A cousin of President Rodrigo Duterte will be arraigned by the Sandiganbayan on March 2 over his alleged ignorance and “willful, unlawful and criminal” neglect in executing a Civil Service Commission order four years ago.
The special appellate court’s Fifth Division, in a five-page resolution promulgated on Feb. 20, denied Danao City Mayor Ramonito Duterte Durano III’s motion to hold his arraignment and maintained its original schedule for the pretrial conference for this Friday.
Associate Justice Maryann Corpus-Manalac penned the resolution concurred by Associate Justices Rafael Lagos and Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque has confirmed that Durano is a second cousin of Duterte, but that the two have had a falling out over the Danao mayor’s decision to support Senator Grace Poe instead of his relative in the 2016 national elections.
Durano was charged for violating Section 67, Book V of Executive Order No. 292 in relation to Section 121 of the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service.
The Ombudsman had accused the mayor of disregarding to implement a CSC order on Aug. 14, 2014 to reinstate certain Danao city government employees and pay their back wages, leave credits, and other benefits.
Durano failed to execute the commission’s decision “despite the fact that the decision and order had become final and executory, to the prejudice of the employees and detriment of public service,” the Ombudsman alleged.
The mayor moved to ask the Sandiganbayan to suspend the proceedings pending his petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court and application for a writ of preliminary injunction at the Court of Appeals.
In opposing the motion, the Ombudsman said the trial must proceed since Durano's arguments are not covered under Section 11, Rule 116 of the Revised Rules of Court.
The Sandiganbayan said that based on the Rules of Court, it can only suspend the proceedings if Durano is "suffering from an unsound mental condition," if there is an existing prejudicial question, or if a petition for review is pending at either the Department of Justice or Office of the President.
"Necessarily, thus, the intended deferment of the proceedings if granted will run counter to the afore-cited rules of procedure, including the general prohibition on postponements designed to expeditiously disposed of criminal cases," the special court said.