Mayor Jose V. Rodriguez and the dismissed city detective

Cebu City Mayor Jose Chiong Veloso Rodriguez, a doctor of medicine and a congressman of the old 7th district of Cebu before World War II dismissed a city detective when he served as city mayor in 1952.

The Cebu City government just like all the local government units hired its own police force. It was only in the 1990's that the Philippine National Police was created that the police were hired by the national government. In Cebu City there was a group called the Secret Service Force, more known as the SECRETA. Unlike the police, they wore civilian clothes but had the power like the police. They were like police detectives. They acted as the personal enforcers of the city's chief executive.

On October 28, 1952 Mayor Rodriguez notified Ahmed Alcamel Abella, a police detective that he was terminated from the force effective October 31, 1952. Abella was appointed as detective on October 1, 1947. He was officially dismissed on November 1, 1952. Abella protested his dismissal and went to the court and filed a petition for mandamus.

The Court of First Instance of Cebu ruled in favor of Mayor Rodriguez and said that a detective was not a member of the city's police department. The grounds of the dismissal according to Mayor Rodriguez was that the position as detective or secreta is not a civil service eligible, the position also requires trust and confidence from the mayor and anyone could be dismissed based on Executive Order 264 issued by President Quezon in 1940.

Abella went to the Supreme Court assisted by the well-known lawyer and journalist Antonio Abad Tormis (years later he was assassinated along Borromeo St., the triggerman and the mastermind were all arrested and convicted).

The city government and Mayor Rodriguez were represented by veteran lawyers Jose L. Abad (admitted to the Bar on October 15, 1923) and Quirino del Mar (admitted to the Bar on December 31, 1925).

Despite the protestations of Mayor Rodriguez that the position as detective was merely on a temporary capacity, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Detective Ahmed Abella. The court granted his petition for mandamus and that Abella be reinstated. The decision was issued on June 29, 1954 by Justice Labrador.

The case of Abella was not the first of its kind, it was not also the last, years before and after. Similar cases were tried before the Court of First Instance and reached the Supreme Court. This was the scene every time a new mayor assumed office.

Mayor Rodriguez was succeeded by Pedro Clavano who was appointed by President Magsaysay as caretaker of the city while the first election for the city mayor and vice mayor will be held. It was Sergio "Serging" Osmeña Jr, who became the first elected City Mayor of Cebu in 1955.