Degamo: I am still your governor
"I am still your governor until such time the Supreme Court says I am not," Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo said in response to renewed calls from the Department of Interior and Local Government to enforce the Ombudsman dismissal order against him.
The Ombudsman order of dismissal was supposed to be implemented after the 60day temporary restraining order (TRO), issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) against it, had expired last August 23.
Degamo explained the CA had denied the petition of June Vincent Gaudan for the DILG and the Ombudsman to grant him a permanent injunction, but the appellate court instead issued an order submitting the case for resolution.
The governor assured Negrenses that there is no vacuum in the provincial government to speak of because the TRO remains enforceable unless lifted or extended.
Degamo criticized pronouncements made by two lawyers that the dismissal order against the provincial treasurer and the provincial accountant should also be enforced against him because it refers to the same facts of the case.
Degamo said he was surprised why these two lawyers are so interested in the case, adding that he might have them investigated into their real intentions and motives.
Meanwhile lawyer Joel Obar, in his personal capacity, noted that the dismissal order of Degamo was already issued, served and implemented on June 17, 2016 or a few days before his term expires on June 30, 2016 before the TRO was issued by the CA five days later.
Obar strongly believed the DILG cannot anymore implement a dismissal on Degamo after the expiration of the 60-day TRO because it was already enforced and it cannot enforce the same order twice.
Obar said it would have been a different picture if the dismissal order was served and implemented on July 1, 2016. "For what use it is to dismiss an elected official few days before his term expires," he added.
Degamo's camp considered it an interruption of his term limit. The governor said the debate now is whether CA's order submitting the case for resolution is an order lifting the TRO or an order extending the same.
Obar's personal opinion said it did not say anything, and that the TRO already died a natural death. He however pointed out there is still light on the part of the complainants to file a disqualification case at the Comelec.
The disqualification case against Degamo, said Obar, would make it appear that gubernatorial candidate George Arnaiz has no opponent in the May 9 elections, and that they have to finish the case before Degamo's term expires.