Osmeña wants plaint filed by ex-NBI 7 director dropped

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is asking the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss the complaint former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 director Atty. Florencio Villarin filed against him over his deputy mayors.

The mayor, through lawyers of the City Legal Office, said that Villarin’s allegations were groundless.

The complainant had admitted that there was no doubt “that a title of deputy mayor is only a title of a position and not an appointment or designation.”

“In view of this free and voluntary admission by the complainant, the complaint is not only lacking in factual and legal basis but is also self-contradictory thereby rendering the same dismissible” read a portion of the comment of Osmeña.

Villarin filed an administrative complaint against Osmeña and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella after the mayor appointed some councilors as his deputy mayors.

In his complaint, Villarin said that the act violated the principle of separation of powers of the State, or the system of check and balance.

But Osmeña said that there was no office or function created by the appointment of deputy mayors.

For lack of better term, the mayor said, the notices or memoranda given to all departments of the City Government used the word “appoint” and “designate” in their ordinary meaning.

“The title of deputy mayor is not an appointment or designation as defined in the legal sense. The title of deputy mayor did not impose/add any function, benefit, and/or salary. Thus, the provisions of the Local Government Code and the 1987 Constitution were not violated since there was neither appointment nor designation as contemplated by these laws,” the mayor said.

The mayor appointed Councilors Eugenio Gabuya, Joy Augustus Young, Sisinio Andales, Margarita Osmeña, Alvin Arcilla and Mary Ann delos Santos, who are his allies, as deputy mayors.

He also appointed former councilor Nendell Hanz Abella and Councilor Dave Tumulak after the two defected from Team Rama. He later appointment Jerry Guardo.

They were tasked “to perform certain executive functions related to the general areas of concerns.”