Iligan mayor gets 1 year for usurpation

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has sentenced Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia to up to a year in prison for unlawfully performing mayoral duties while he was in jail on murder charges.

In a 63-page decision promulgated on Feb. 11, the anti-graft court’s Seventh Division found Regencia guilty of usurpation of official functions as provided under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code.

The Sandiganbayan sentenced Regencia to a minimum of two months to a maximum of one year and eight months in prison.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2017, the case stemmed from Regencia’s continued performance of the functions of a mayor from November 2015 onwards despite being in detention since October of that year.

Regencia was detained at the Iligan City Jail for multiple murder and frustrated murder in connection with the ambush on the convoy of Iligan Rep. Vicente Belmonte at the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental in 2014.

Belmonte’s three security escorts were killed in the attack. He and three others were wounded.

The anti-graft court said the ombudsman presented sufficient evidence showing Regencia continued to issue executive orders and memoranda, signed checks and vouchers, and appointed persons to various positions in the city government although he was not entitled to do so.

The court cited a provision of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code, which automatically renders a local public official detained under a valid case “physically and legally” incapacited to perform his duties and functions.

“Regencia’s detention served as a temporary physical and legal incapacity to act as mayor. Section 46 (a) of RA 7160 is explicit that when a mayor is temporarily incapacitated to perform his duties for physical and legal reasons, the vice mayor should automatically exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the local chief executive,” the court said.

It said the Department of the Interior and Local Government issued two letters in October and November 2015, stating that then vice mayor Ruderic Marzo should serve as the acting mayor.

“Regencia continued to perform the mayoral functions until his reelection in May 2016 until his release in 2017,” the Sandiganbayan said.

It said Regencia’s insistence in exercising the powers of mayor while in detention negated his claim of good faith.

“Regencia’s reelection in 2016 did not cure his ‘temporary incapacity’ to perform the functions of his office as provided under the law, as he remained detained at that time,” the decision read.

Regencia was released on Jan. 30, 2017 after the Department of Justice granted his motion to dismiss the multiple murder and frustrated murder cases he was facing.