MANILA, Philippines - Taguig City Mayor Laarni Cayetano is facing a criminal complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly closing down the locality’s session hall and forcing members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod to work elsewhere.
Vice Mayor George Elias and 15 councilors filed charges against Cayetano and city administrator Jose Luis Montales for allegedly violating Article 143 of the Revised Penal Code, a provision that covers crimes against legislative bodies.
Cayetano allegedly “unlawfully and maliciously had the session hall of the Sanggunian closed with all the direct entrances there to padlocked” on Aug. 16, forcing the city council to hold its regular session on the stairs of the third floor corridor.
“When the vice mayor and the councilors arrived at about 3 p.m. that day they found the session hall padlocked still, with the tables and chairs moved to the sides and a big tarpaulin picture of respondent mayor occupying the center of the floor,” the 11-page complaint read.
Instead of letting them in, Montales allegedly gave Elias and the councilors copies of a letter notifying them of the closure and urging them to hold their session at a room in the upper deck of the auditorium where the ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia used in the May 10 elections and subject of pending election protest against Cayetano are stored.
“The sudden and ill-timed padlocking of the session hall is both a patent illegal act and a brazen abuse of authority since there is no approved plan and budget nor is there a genuine need for the purported renovation or repair of the city hall or even the session hall alone, apart from being a disgraceful affront to the standing and dignity of the Sanggunian as an independent body and a naked act of oppression designed to harass and humiliate complainants individually,” the complainants said.
They claimed the order for them to hold their session at the upper deck of the auditorium is unwarranted “as it does a fraudulent and clumsy artifice” to have them work “where the sensitive election documents are stored.”