Pichay disputes suspension

MANILA, Philippines - Dismissed Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chairman and former Surigao del Sur congressman Prospero Pichay is contesting before the Supreme Court a five-month-old suspension order from the Ombudsman in connection with his role in the alleged anomalous acquisition by LWUA of a troubled bank.

In a 22-page petition, Pichay said the Court of Appeals’ (CA) second division erred in dismissing his motion for the Ombudsman to reconsider its suspension order, citing a pending dismissal order in July also from the same office. The CA dismissed his motion for reconsideration, citing its being “moot and academic.”

Pichay cited the Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Administrative Code of 1987, which give a party to an administrative case the right to file an appeal or a motion for reconsideration.

“Since said Order of Dismissal of the then Acting Ombudsman is not yet final, the legal issues raised by petitioner in the instant Petition still remain justiciable controversies which this Honorable Court can resolve and as such, the case at bar cannot yet be considered moot and academic,” Pichay said.

He said the Ombudsman violated the Constitution for allegedly depriving him of his constitutional right to due process and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him when it ordered his preventive suspension.

“The Office of the Ombudsman admitted that the evidence submitted were sufficient for it to render a decision. Hence, it was unnecessary to place petitioner under preventive suspension simply because the same serves no purpose,” he argued.

Respondents in Pichay’s petition, aside from the Office of the Ombudsman, are LWUA employees Rustico Tutol, Luis DG Estrada and Carmen Amores, and the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Pichay was placed under a six-month preventive suspension without pay for the alleged unlawful investment of LWUA in Express Savings Bank Inc. (ESBI) amounting to P480 million.

LWUA officials Tutol, Estrada and Amores alleged that Pichay and the other respondents “violated the provisions of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for Fiscal Year 2009, when they unlawfully disbursed LWUA funds by investing the total amount of P780 million in the said bank despite that it has been under rehabilitation by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).”

They also alleged that the LWUA Board of Trustees unlawfully authorized the payment in favor of ESBI of the amount of P4 million “for subscription to the increase in the authorized capital stock of said bank.”

The complainants also said Pichay and other LWUA officials violated BSP Circular No. 309 when they failed to secure prior approval of the Monetary Board for the acquisition of ESBI shares.