Cebu gov’s son files robbery raps vs Mar, cops

MANILA, Philippines - The son of suspended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia filed a robbery complaint yesterday against Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel Roxas II and police officials.

Pablo Garcia III said in his three-page complaint that despite demands, Roxas and the police have refused to return three tents each measuring six meters by 12 meters.

The tents were used for a vigil at the capitol in support of the suspended governor. Police broke up the vigil and confiscated the tents.

Garcia said the provincial capitol does not own the tents.

Aside from Roxas, those who were named respondents were Director Marcelo Garbo of Police Regional Office (PRO)-7, Commanding Officer of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) Supt. Leopoldo Cabanag and Police Inspector Alvino Enguito of RPSB Central Visayas.

The tents were installed on Dec. 18 in front of the provincial capitol to be used for the Mass and prayer vigil. Garcia said he rented the tents from Sheentrade Marketing for P2,600 per tent per day.

However, he said on Dec.19 at around 9:30 p.m. while the prayer vigil was ongoing, 80 to 100 uniformed and armed PNP personnel arrived and “hurriedly dispersed” the prayer vigil and placed the tents in the PNP trucks.

“Until this date, the respondents have failed and refused to return the tents notwithstanding their knowledge of the fact that the tents are not owned by the Province of Cebu,” the complaint-affidavit reads.

The complainant asked the respondents to pay P7,800 in actual damages representing the rental of the tents starting Dec. 18; P500,000 in attorney’s fees; P5 million in moral damages and P2 million in exemplary damages.

Business as usual

Meanwhile, Malacañang said it is business as usual in Cebu despite Garcia’s refusal to recognize her suspension.

The Palace also expressed confidence that the administration coalition would understand the Palace action in the vote-rich province.

“The business of governance is ongoing. It remains unhampered. The services to the people of Cebu continue,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing.

Lacierda said he did not know whether Garcia would have to pay for all her expenses during her stay at the provincial capitol “but there is a suspension order” and the DILG had designated the vice governor, Agnes Magpale, as officer-in-charge.

“Therefore, all legal orders and all approval of expenditures should emanate from the office of acting Governor Magpale,” Lacierda said.

Tiangco to Evardone: Looks who’s talking

As this developed, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) secretary general Toby Tiangco accused Liberal Party (LP) spokesman Ben Evardone, an ally of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who now supports President Aquino, of recycling the same excuses he used against former Makati mayor and now Vice President Jejomar Binay to justify the suspension of Garcia.

Tiangco said Evardone was one of Arroyo’s loyal defenders and used to insist that Arroyo was on the right side of the law each time her regime abused its power.

“He now speaks of letting the legal process prevail and respect for the rule of law in the suspension of Gov. Gwen Garcia, UNA’s provincial chair for Cebu and congressional candidate. These words sound very familiar. These are the same words used by Rep. Evardone and other former Arroyo defenders to justify the harassment of the opposition led by Vice President Binay in 2006 and 2007,” Tiangco said.

“Harassment is harassment. You cannot invoke respect for the rule of law and daang matuwid (straight path) to justify a patently illegal act and the abuse of power. Those who are now invoking the rule of law and the righteous path should first examine their tainted political and moral backgrounds to avoid embarrassing themselves and their new masters,” Tiangco said.

“No matter what the LP and its apologists say, the people of Cebu know that martial law has been imposed in their province,” he said.

For UNA, Tiangco said respect for the rule of law also means extending courtesy to a co-equal branch of government.

He said that since a case has already been filed with the Court of Appeals, the administration party should allow the courts to decide.

Garcia spent Christmas with her friends, supporters and family in her office at the capitol, unmindful of the suspension.

She admitted that she had “apprehensions” about the way she would celebrate Christmas, but relatives and friends arrived, setting up two round tables where two baked turkeys, lechon or roast pig, lumpia (spring rolls), beef steak, desserts, fruits and wine were served.

Garcia thanked her supporters and vowed not to step down. She has described the suspension order as a power grab.

She also rejected anew calls by the Palace to step down and asked the Court of Appeals to stop the execution of the order.

Garcia was found guilty of grave abuse of authority in connection with administrative charges filed against her by the late Cebu vice governor Greg Sanchez Jr. in 2010.

Sanchez accused Garcia of allegedly diverting the province’s budget, but the embattled governor said that the decision to suspend her was politically motivated especially because of the upcoming 2013 elections.

Garcia, who is on her third and last term, will be eyeing Cebu’s third congressional seat while her brother, Rep. Pablo John, will be running as governor against LP’s Hilario Davude III.

‘Coalition is solid’

Lacierda, in the meantime, said members of the administration coalition – LP, Nacionalista Party (NP), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) and Akbayan Party-list – should have nothing to fear despite the developments in Cebu.

There were reports that LP’s coalition partners were worried about what was happening in Cebu and it might lead to a breakdown.

The Palace said that in the case of Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino, there was a specific accusation against him involving the illegal numbers game jueteng and, therefore, it was investigated by the DILG.

“Insofar as Gov. Gwen Garcia is concerned, there was already a decision made by the Office of the President suspending the governor. So these are not a concerted attempt to diminish the role of the coalition partners and that is something that they should not fear,” Lacierda said.

Espino, who belongs to the NPC of Aquino’s maternal uncle Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., is facing plunder charges before the Ombudsman and an administrative complaint before the Office of the President.

He is seeking reelection in the May 2013 elections and is pitted against LP’s Hernani Braganza, mayor of Alaminos town, also in Pangasinan.

It was Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, president-on-leave of LP, who accompanied Mayor Ricardo Orduna of Bugallon town in Pangasinan in his press conference after he filed plunder charges against Espino at the Office of the Ombudsman.

Orduna, a self-confessed jueteng operator, accused Espino of earning P1 billion from jueteng operations in Pangasinan.

The mayor was also joined by barangay chairman Fernando Alimagno alyas Boy Bata, an alleged jueteng financier.

– With Aurea Calica, Delon Porcalla, Jose Rodel Clapano