SUSPEND TOMAS, MARGOT, APAS CHIEF ASKS PALACE

Last May 29, Barangay Apas Captain Ramil Ayuman filed an urgent motion asking the Office of the President to place Mayor Tomas Osmeña, his wife Councilor Margot under a 90-day preventive suspension Ayuman had filed a complaint against the Osmeñas last Feb

Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman is asking the Office of the President to place Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña under preventive suspension for 90 days following the complaint that he filed against them after they allowed the reopening of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill.

In his urgent motion filed last May 29, Ayuman said the case shows that evidence of guilt against the respondents is strong, compelling and overwhelming.

He said that the prayer for their preventive suspension is in order because the two have filed their answers already to the complaint.

Sought for reaction, Margot said there was a process followed when the landfill was reopened and the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office was already working on the rehabilitation of the facility.

Margot said that when she asked the mayor about it, the latter said that Ayuman, a member of Team Rama along with his other allies, is afraid because they’ll soon lose the majority in the City Council.

“What’s so urgent about it? We’re also entitled to due process. There are more urgent matters than that,” she told SunStar Cebu.

Last Feb. 20, Ayuman lodged the complaint for grave misconduct, abuse of authority, culpa- ble violation of the Constitution, and violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public before Malacañang against the mayor and Margot.

Ayuman, in his complaint said that Margot, who was the acting mayor last June 5, 2016, ordered the reopening of the landfill even if the facility had been closed for more than a year.

“Records of this case show that the reopening of the landfill was done by then acting mayor Margarita Osmeña without prior consultation with the Sangguniang Panlungsod and the residents of Cebu City, especially those who will be directly affected by its reopening,” Ayuman said.

Mayor Osmeña continued operating the facility after he assumed into office last June 30.

Margot said that she sought the approval of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7 before she ordered the facility opened when she was acting mayor last year, shortly after the May elections.

Earlier, Osmeña also told reporters that the landfill was never closed since the City has yet to complete the procedure, which includes drafting a closure and rehabilitation plan.

He added that the City Government just stopped dumping its garbage there when former mayor Michael Rama ordered it closed in 2015. /