Gwen loses bid to stop dismissal

The Court of Appeals (CA) has struck down an attempt by House Deputy Speaker and Cebu 3rd district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia to stop the Office of the Ombudsman from removing her from office.

The CA’s 19th Division denied Garcia’s application for issuance of a temporary restraining order against the Ombudsman’s order dismissing her from service for grave misconduct.

“The present application failed to illustrate petitioner’s right and any violation against such right that warrants this court’s protection,” read the CA resolution penned by Associate Justice Dorothy Montejo-Gonzaga.

Garcia’s counsels filed a petition for review before the appeals court in a bid to stop the ombudsman’s dismissal order.

The anti-graft office dismissed Garcia from the service for grave misconduct over the alleged unauthorized P24.47-million project to backfill a largely underwater Balili property in 2012.

The dismissal order carries the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, cancellation of eligibility and forfeiture of retirement benefits.

The Ombudsman then directed ousted House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to implement the dismissal order but he refused to do so.

Garcia had questioned the timing of the Ombudsman’s order, which she said was handed down as she was “very active” at the height of the impeachment hearing against impeached chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

She also argued that removing her from office would deprive her of serving her constituents “who reposed much respect and trust in her.”

“Petitioner (Garcia) failed to establish the irreparable injury she would suffer...” read the CA’s resolution. “Such fear did not constitute the requisite irreparable injury that may warrant the issuance of the writ of injunction. The injury being feared by the petitioner is not of such kind.”