‘Tormented’ city execs strike back at mayor

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

EMBATTLED Iloilo City Hall executives are not about to back out from a fight with Mayor Jerry Treñas.

After filing criminal and administrative charges against the mayor recently, City Health Office (CHO) chief Dr. Bernard Caspe bravely answered the claims of Treñas against him Wednesday afternoon.

Caspe said Treñas tagging him in an alleged sex scandal that erupted years ago was the mayor’s way of embarrassing him and diverting public attention from the outright issue.

He also labelled the mayor’s allegations as “childish” (binata-bata).

“Regarding sa comment niya, daw binata-bata iya statement, here are two things nga gusto niya i-point out guro, number one pakahuy-an niya ko definitely since a day after elections ginalawag ngalan ko pirme involved in electioneering. Pampa-divert sang issue sa iya, so amo na ginatira-tira niya ko sa radyo,” he emphasized.

The CHO chief also questioned the truthfulness and the legality of the issues being thrown at him, adding that his lawyer is preparing criminal charges against the mayor.

 

“Ang ginapanghaboy nila sa akon may proweba sila, ginafloat lang nila, gina ready na sang akon lawyer ang criminal case para sa iya, bal-an man niya,” Caspe said.

 

In a radio interview on Monday, Treñas said that he is ready to face the charges filed at him by Caspe.

The mayor recalled that Caspe sought help from his office when he was involved in an alleged scandal on a social media site.

 

“I am ready to face that, sang nadumduman ko may problema na siya nga sex scandal sa Facebook nagkadto siya kag nangayo bulig sa akon opisina kag napabulig kami,” he said.

 

Caspe filed charges against the mayor and City Administrator Melchor Tan for grave misconduct, oppression, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, grave coercion, violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The charges were lodged before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas in Cebu City with very urgent prayer to place Treñas and Tan under preventive suspension pending investigation.

Caspe alleged that the Treñas administration had been pressuring him to resign from his office with a stern warning that if he should not resign his life in the City Hall will become miserable and that he will be facing various cases in various forms.

According to Caspe, Treñas had been pressuring him due to suspicion that he campaigned for then mayor Jose Espinosa III in the recent midterm elections but he emphasized that he never campaigned.

“Tan told me that it’s the mayor’s instruction that I will be out of Iloilo City Hall by all means. I felt much oppressed at that time because I know I have never committed any wrong. With tears, I said to Mr. Tan that I cannot resign because I need a fixed income for the future of my little children,” read part of his complaint.

 

 

WHITE PAPER RAPS

Meantime, City Civil Registrar Office (CCRO) head Romeo Caesar Manikan Jr. also responded to the show-cause order issued by Treñas regarding the alleged defective marriages registered with his office.

The show-cause order was relative to the letter complaint by a certain Juan Dela Cruz against Manikan where it was alleged that the CCRO chief connived with dismissed judge Ofelia Artuz and other personalities to register unauthorized and unsolemnized marriages endorsed to the CCRO.

In his response, Manikan reiterated that “there is absolutely no cause/reason, and ground to charge him with administrative disciplinary sanction because he has not done any wrongdoing and is not guilty and liable on the complaint”.

The letter complaint filed by Dela Cruz according to Manikan is “spurious, fictitious, and clearly manufactured ‘white paper’ masquerading as letter-complaint absurdly signed in the name of the colloquial term for the ordinary Filipino, ‘Juan Dela Cruz’ and mockingly signed with the patently false, fictitious, and ridiculously whimsical signature composed of ‘three stars and a sun’ clearly warrants no other logical, legal, and factual action.

“No sane person in his right mind on a good day signs any paper that way and under such name unless the very clear intent is to make a mockery of the recipient thereof, or of the proceedings for which such paper is submitted for,” he furthered.

In his complaint, Manikan cited several “glaring” and “fatal” flaws, defects of the “white paper” letter-complaint that warrants no other logical recourse except for its outright dismissal such as: it is not signed by any living person nor the identity could not be ascertained to a reasonable degree; not verified and sworn/under oath; and the person who made the complaint has not been/cannot be established; among others.

According to Manikan, giving attention to the “white paper” in itself is a form of “harassment, oppression, misconduct, abuse and a violation of the appropriate provisions of Republic Acts No. 3019 (otherwise known as Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices) and No. 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees).

Manikan had been investigated for the alleged defective marriages uncovered at his office.

But he has been emphasizing ever since that the duty of the persons concerned to register all certificates of marriage presented thereto is “ministerial”.

“It is beyond the power, authority, and official function and duty of the persons/public officers or employees concerned to inquire, know, be aware, and even notified of the circumstances of the actual celebration of the marriages concerned,” Manikan emphasized.

He also stressed that in law, marriages / certificates of marriage / marriage contracts / licenses are presumed valid and accorded the presumption of regularity of official functions by public officers, “not just during the solemnization and recording thereof, but likewise, during the registration thereof with the CCRO.”

This, Manikan added, is the reason for existence of a civil action for declaration of nullity of marriage based on alleged lack of authority of the solemnizing officer as provided under the Civil Code of the Philippines, the Family Code of the Philippines, and the 1997 revised Rules of Court.

“It must also be stressed sir, that it is elementary in law and jurisprudence, and among legal practitioners, including yourself, that sanctions for celebrating marriages without the appropriate authority are directed at the person committing the said acts, and not upon the undersigned, the personnel and/or staff, of the CCRO,” Manikan stressed.

Both the allegations of Caspe and Manikan have been denied by Treñas emphasizing that the investigation conducted by the city government on the defective marriages is not biased.

 

“Guilty lang sila sang mga gin paubrahan nila, kay Mr. Manikan may reklamo nga may ara da gapanukot indi nasugtan labi na gid nga may reklamo nga mga fake marriages,” he said in a radio interview.

 

Last September 11, 2019, regular employee Joe Mari Esteral also filed criminal and administrative charges against Treñas and Tan alongside five other City Hall employees for allegedly harassing and oppressing him through re-assignment.

Esteral claimed that Tan, Treñas, City General Services Office Head Joren Sartorio, City Legal Officer Atty. Edgar Gil, Iloilo City Civil Registry Assistant Department Head Cherrie Ampig, and Executive Assistants Fernando Jose Rico and Rudiver Jungco Sr. connived and confederated in harassing and oppressing him not only through re-assignment but also in forcing him to testify and pin down his boss, Manikan.

The officials have since denied Esteral’s allegations.