The Court of Appeals has stopped the Office of the Ombudsman from implementing its resolution removing San Jose del Monte, Bulacan Mayor Reynaldo San Pedro from his post for grave abuse of authority and grave misconduct.
The CA’s Second Division through Associate Justice Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla granted the plea of San Pedro for the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the Ombudsman’s order issued on March 16, which found him guilty of harassing city engineer Rufino Gravador Jr. by stripping him of his duties and creating the position of city building official, purportedly to spite him.
The appellate court ordered the anti-graft body “to cease and desist” from enforcing its decision dated March 7, 2016 which removed San Jose del Monte, Bulacan mayor from his position due to an administrative case for “Oppression” filed by former SJDM city engineer Gravador.
“Considering that San Pedro was meted the supreme penalty of dismissal from service, it was reasonably necessary to protect [his] legal rights pending resolution of the extant appeal … to prevent any irremediable remedy that San Pedro may sustain in view of the enforcement of the Decision in question,” the resolution stated.
Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Socorro Inting concurred with the ruling.
The TRO, valid for 60 days, is conditioned upon the filing of a bond of P200,000.
In his petition, San Pedro told the CA that the decision of the Ombudsman was excessive and that he was deprived of the right to due process, as he was removed for a ground different from that alleged in the complaint filed by Gravador.
In a statement, San Pedro through lawyers Ferdinand Topacio and Joselito Lomangaya said that he was “elated by the grant of the TRO,” adding that “justice has prevailed.”