Governor won’t budge until Sec. Remulla offers clarity
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia steadfastly refused to vacate her post over the weekend, insisting that she was not defying the Ombudsman’s suspension order but merely exercising her right to exhaust all legal remedies.
In a press briefing, Garcia explained that since issuing preventive suspensions on officials is prohibited during election season, her legal team has advised against stepping down until the matter is clarified.
“I have decided, upon the advice of my counsel, to write a clarificatory query to the Secretary of Interior and Local Government, Sec. Jonvic Remulla, since it is the DILG, through the PNP, that is tasked to implement this order,” she told reporters.
For his part, lawyer Alex Avisado, the governor’s lead counsel, said they are merely awaiting Sec. Remulla’s guidance on the matter.
“There is no defiance of the Ombudsman’s order. With all due respect, there is no defiance,” he assured.
Garcia also described Ombudsman Samuel Martires’ media statement as “grossly misinformed,” when he accused her of allowing quarrying in Managga River, when she only approved its desilting.
This lack of understanding of the situation apparently served as the basis of the Ombudsman’s 6-month preventive suspension order against her, she added.
It can be recalled that Martires was quoted as saying, “Remember Chocolate Hills in Bohol? This case is worse! At the Chocolate Hills, they put up a resort, but the damage was not that extensive. This is quarrying! It destroys everything. And they did it in a protected area.”
Garcia said that the Ombudsman’s swift issuance of a preventive suspension against her revealed his misappreciation of certain facts.
The Ombudsman would have been more enlightened if he had carefully, even just read the special permit that was attached to the complaint.
“It is not quarrying,” Gov. Gwen said in response to this statement by the Ombudsman.
“I really stretched my imagination trying to find some relevance, an iota of relevance at all between what happened to the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, where private resorts were allowed to be constructed there up and what happened in Manangan River, we were desilting in order to let precious water flow to the group and dam so that Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) could meet its commitments,” Garcia explained.
“The ombudsman, I believe, because he never gave me the opportunity to respond, has been grossly misinformed. That is his tragedy, not mine, because his statements in Rapper exposed how truly unenlightened he was as regards the Mananga case,” Garcia stated.
Meanwhile, lawyer Rory Jon Sepulveda, a member of Garcia’s legal team, pointed out that when the suspension order was served on April 29, it lacked accompanying documents, such as the complaint itself, which is typically necessary for a respondent to file a counter-affidavit or position paper.
He said this was a violation of Garcia’s right to due process.