Countdown begins on CA decision as fate of Iloilo's 'final' guv hangs
The official wait begins for the decision and resolution of the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu City on the legal mess involving Iloilo's top officials.
Will it spell the end for Ombudsman-dismissed Governor Niel Tupas Sr., allies in board members Domingo Oso Jr. (Fourth District) and Cecilia Capadosa (Second District)? As such, will the CA's 19th Division set aside and lift the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and junk the appeal for permanent injunction?
Or will it settle the legal question whether the Ombudsman decision finding the trio guilty of dishonesty and ordered dismissed from service was just and within the bounds of law? As such, will it restore to full normalcy the operations of the Iloilo Provincial Government and bring back to office Tupas in the Executive Department and back to the Legislative Department Roberto "Obet" Armada as the Vice Governor?
The countdown starts this week as both camps concluded legal arguments called for by the CA that were personally delivered in Cebu City if only to avert any more delays.
Position of the Tupas camp was that the Office of the Ombudsman "committed grave abuse of discretion tantamount to lack or excess of jurisdiction in ordering the immediate execution of its assailed decision" dismissing Tupas Sr., Oso Jr. and Capadosa. Further still, Tupas and company argued that the Office of the Ombudsman is guilty of grave abuse of discretion alongside the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) when it served the Ombudsman decision.
The Armada camp for its part maintains that all were above-board in as far as the assumption into office was made making the Vice Governor as the new Governor with the vacancy declared then by the DILG.
In totality, the fate of all officials embroiled in this legal battle depends on the outcome of the CA decision and resolution.
Docketed as SP. No. 02419, Associate Justice Francisco Acosta then restrained government agents and officials from effecting the dismissal orders with the CA Resolution concurred by Associate Justices Isaias Dicdican and Agustin Dizon.
The TRO carries a 60-day effectivity "unless earlier lifted or dissolved" and "until further orders from this Court," the two-page CA order went.
Other "respondents" as hurled into the CA by the Tupas camp were Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez of the Office of the Ombudsman, Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Iloilo Vice Governor Roberto Armada, Board Member Manny Gallar and Iloilo People's Graftwatch, lawyer Hyptie Correa, former Judge Virgilio Sindico, Pio Lujan and Monsignor Meliton Oso.
Meantime, sedition charges filed against Tupas and a number of key Capitol personalities were handled by the Office of the Ombudsman following the inhibition sought by the group against the hearing of such before the Iloilo City Prosecutors office.
The Philippine National Police has since maintained that corresponding police operation that saw some 200 police personnel and the elite Regional Mobile Group inside the Capitol building last January 17 was not an 'overkill' but a legitimate police operation and appropriate response.
This, with the entry to the Capitol's premises blocked with government dump trucks, main doors heavily guarded and others locked and blocked as well. In the three days that Tupas and company holed up inside the building, operations of the Iloilo Provincial Government were either stopped or significantly affected.