Mayor's lady counsel lashes at SP, 'demands' for dismissal of admin raps vs. client
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?
Maquino
Not quite the perfect line for this particular case but such may be attributed to the lady lawyer who stands as counsel for an Iloilo mayor.
Subject of an administrative case for grave abuse of authority, dereliction of duty and dishonesty pending before the Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP), the mayor's lawyer wants all charges dismissed and dismissed right away.
And in taking up the cudgels for the mayor-client, the lady counsel submitted a strongly-worded six-paged Motion to Dismiss lashing at members of the 9th SP.
In said Motion, five grounds were stated starting off with the reminder to the SP body - the prescribed hearing period has since lapsed. And this, the mayor's counsel Ma. Salvacion Portia Beup stressed, continued delay is an SP violation in itself of practically the same charges.
Docketed as Administrative Case No. 2007-002, defendant is Santa Barbara Mayor Isabelo Maquino while plaintiff is former broadcast journalist and Santa Barbara Councilor Larry Deatras.
The discussion as presented highlighted the history of the case stating, "Five months have lapsed since the filing of the Answer by the defendant, but in so far as the defendant is concerned, no action involving the case has been taken by the Honorable Sanggunian Panlalawigan of the Province of Iloilo."
"The sanggunian should not pay mere lip service to the reglementary periods for investigating and deciding on the case. The proceedings in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan were unduly prolonged, to the prejudice of the defendant," excerpts of the Motion as filed went. "Any action other than dismissal of the case shall be tantamount to grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the Sanggunian Panlalawigan of the Province of Iloilo, which prejudicial to the rights of the defendant and shall be a perpetration of injustice, unfairness, and ineptitude to the latter."
Second ground for the dismissal, the Motion continued, was that the supposed undue delay is violative of the constitutional right of the defendant-mayor.
"Defendant being a public official has to attend to the pressing concerns of local governance. A period of five months of unjustified delay in the determination of an administrative case is too long for a municipal mayor who is given by law a term of only three years to serve his constituents. This delay is clearly vexatious, capricious, oppressive and prejudicial on his part. Simply put, justice delayed is justice denied," the Motion continued.
And it does not stop there.
"To allow the pendency of the case until the end of the defendant's term of office as Municipal Mayor of the Municipality of Santa Barbara, Province of Iloilo or until the next election period is unreasonable and is indicative of political machination," it continued.
Third ground for dismissal was supposed lack of jurisdiction of the SP to remove the mayor from office saying "the SP is bereft of jurisdiction…."
Fourth ground is that the complaint as lodged has allegedly "no cause of action and lacks a proper verification."
And lastly, the complaint is supposedly "moot and academic" as it dubbed the complainant's move as "political despondency."
"The present action is clearly politically-motivated, instituted to harass the defendant and undermine his good governance and strongly reeks of ill will, malice and bad faith on the part of the plaintiff," the Motion ended.