Osmeña wants his plan decided in referendum

Mayor Tomas Osmeña plans to publicize the performance of judges and prosecutors in the city, but he wants to put such plan for the electorate to decide through a referendum.

Osmeña also wanted the city council to appropriate at least P2 million for the expenses of a referendum, in which the voters' choice of either "yes" or "no" to his plan would be included in the ballots for the 2007 national elections.

However, even before the question on funding is resolved, the Osmeña plan faces two other questions: Will it not violate any law or breach the rights of judges and prosecutors?; and will it be feasible to be incorporated in the 2007 ballots?

The mayor wants to let the public decide on his plan because the publication provides the public the right to know how judges and prosecutors handle criminal cases.

The publication, he said, would contain the status of the cases in court, the number of cases a particular court has resolved, the decisions over cases, and the length of time within which the case was resolved.

"I feel it (referendum) is a way of debate. If the people say it is okay so it could be presumed that it is okay to spend for the publication," Osmeña said in his regular press conference yesterday.

But this early, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines expressed opposition to the plan arguing that such publication is a violation of the separation of powers of the branches of government.

Some observers however commented that the IBP reaction on the matter might have risen from the group's unhealthy relationship with the mayor due to conflicts of principles over several issues in the past.

An issue in particular was the unresolved vigilante killings in the city that drew outrage from the IBP but which Osmeña described as a reaction of lawyers who pity more on slain criminals than on the victims.

The judges who would be affected directly with the planned publication gave a rather indirect reaction, where they neither agree nor disagree with it.

Regional Trial Court executive judge Simeon Dumdum Jr, for one, said Osmeña might be sued for libel if he only publishes selectively the names of judges and prosecutors who dismiss drug cases or acquit drug suspects.

Dumdum said that publishing the names of judges and prosecutors that drop drug cases and acquit drug suspects might raise a presumption that something questionable or anomalous might be involved in the decision.

He said it is better for the mayor to include in the publication the entire copy of the resolution of a case so the public may also know the basis of the judge or the prosecutor in dismissing a case or acquitting an accused.

There are six judges at the Palace of Justice in Cebu City who have been handling drug-related cases. They are Judges Soliver Peras, Meinrado Paredes, Enriquita Belarmino, Fortunato de Gracia, Gabriel Ingles and Renato Maamo.

Comelec officer Simaco Labata, for his part, opined that the Osmeña plan might not be feasible because the ballots containing security features are manufactured in Manila.

"Pwede ta mo-undertake og referendum but not during the national elections," Labata said, adding that it would be impossible for Osmeña to integrate in the national polls a referendum over an issue that is exclusive to the city.

Labata, however, suggested the mayor to conduct a referendum in a barangay assembly instead of making it simultaneous with the elections of local or national candidates. - Garry B. Lao