Former President Rodrigo Duterte has been exonerated by the Supreme Court of simple misconduct for which he was imposed a six-month suspension when he was still the mayor of Davao City.
In a decision dated March 15, 2023 and made public on June 30, the High Court upheld the 2011 ruling of the Court of Appeals reversing the Ombudsman’s suspension order on Duterte and five other city officials. The SC decision, penned by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, also cleared Wendel E. Avisado, city administrator; Jose D. Gestuveo Jr., city engineer; Elmer B. Rano and J. Melchor V. Quitain, city legal officers; and Yusop A. Jimlani, chief of the city’s drainage and maintenance unit.
The complaint against Duterte as mayor and the other city officials was filed before the Ombudsman by the late former Speaker Prospero Nograles who was also then Davao City 1st District representative.
The controversy arose from the 2006 Canal-Cover project initiated by Nograles in Davao City’s Quezon Boulevard. The case records stated that “since concrete flooring was constructed on top of the drainage canal, silt and garbage could not be dredged, impeding the flow of water.”
In 2008, the Davao City government informed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of the problem arising from the construction of the concrete flooring. The DPWH constructed several manholes on the concrete flooring of the canal, but flooding still occurred, prompting the city government to inform the DPWH of its plan to remove the concrete flooring.
The demolition started on Oct. 16, 2008, and a few days later Nograles sought a legal opinion from the Department of Justice which, through then Secretary Raul Gonzales, ruled that “the erection, construction, alteration, repair, or demolition of structures requires a building permit from the building official assigned in the place where the structure is located.”
“It is ultimately the Department of Public Works and Highways that determines if a structure is a nuisance per se and that it may be demolished only upon the failure of the structure to comply with the order of the building official or the Secretary of Public Works and Highways,” the DOJ said in its opinion.
Nograles then filed before the Ombudsman a complaint for grave misconduct against Duterte and grave abuse of authority against the other city officials.
On April 21, 2010, the Ombudsman found Duterte and his co-accused guilty of simple misconduct and ordered their six-month suspension.
They elevated the case to the Court Appeals, which on Aug. 4, 2010 stopped the Ombudsman from implementing its order.
In 2011, the CA reversed the Ombudsman ruling.
The CA said that while the Canal-Cover Project was not a nuisance per se, the concerned public officials could not be held liable for simple misconduct for the project’s demolition.
The Ombudsman and Nograles, in separate petitions, elevated the CA ruling before the Supreme Court.