GICA CAN’T ASSUME OLD POST YET: CA

Despite order to be returned to his old post, Court of Appeals says former Dumanjug mayor Efren Gica still can’t be reinstated as mayor

Efren Guntrano Gica cannot return yet to his previous office as Dumanjug mayor.

This, after the Court of Appeals merely “noted” Gica’s appeal to be reinstated to his position following the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss him from service for serious dishonesty and grave misconduct last year.

“There would, in effect, be a prejudgment of the main case and a reversal of the rule on the burden of proof since it would assume the proposition which the petitioner is inceptively duty-bound to prove,” read the CA’s resolution penned by Associate Justice Marilyn Lagura-Yap.

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Gica from service for tampering with a restaurant receipt amounting to P11,435 to bloat the amount to P21,435 in 2014.

The ombudsman ordered the cancellation of Gica’s civil service eligibility and barred him from working again in government.

Apart from the dismissal, the ombudsman also indicted Gica for malversation of public funds, three counts of falsification of official documents and for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The dismissal came eight months after the ombudsman reinstated Gica as Dumanjug mayor in March 2017.

In a four-page joint order, Graft Investigator Portia Pacquiao ordered Gica restored to his position after realizing that the anti-graft office issued the resolution and decision without considering the respondent’s defense.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by former mayor Nelson Garcia, who accused Gica of tampering with a Ding Qua Qua receipt for P11,435 so it would appear to be P21,435 last Aug.12, 2014.

Gica, for his part, said that he could not be held liable for malversation of public funds since he had no custody of public funds as the vice mayor then.

Gica said that the cash advances that he obtained were all used for payments of meals during the barangay assembly of the Association of Local Budget Officers seminar in Cebu City.