Gwen sues Tomas for appointing Yu to MCWD board

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday filed a case against Mayor Tomas Osmeña for appointing Joel Mari Yu, last February, as board member of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

The governor argued that the act of the mayor and Yu’s appointment itself are “clearly illegal” and thus void. She also assailed the MCWD for acknowledging the appoinment and allowing Yu to sit and participate in the board meetings and in other transactions of the water district.

Garcia, in her 11-page complaint, asked the court to nullify the appointment of Yu, and had included both Yu and MCWD as defendants in the case it filed against the mayor.

She also petitioned that, immediately upon the filing of the complaint, a writ of preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order be issued against Yu to stop him from acting as MCWD board member of MCWD, performing the duties and functions of the position, and receiving salaries, fees, honoraria, allowances, and other remunerations for such position.

The governor also asked the court to enjoin MCWD from recognizing Yu as its board member. She further prayed that, after hearing on the merits, a judgment or decision be rendered to her favor and declaring null and void Yu’s appointment.

Garcia, through provincial legal counsel Marino Martinquilla, said that since MCWD was created in 1974, all its officers and board members were appointed by the city mayor.

Since 1996 to the present, however, MCWD’s active water service connections in the city have gone down to below 75 percent of its total service connections and that no other municipality or city within its area of coverage has even reached the 75-percent level, said Garcia.

Given that situation, section 3 (b) on Appointing Authority provision of the law would be applied, said the governor. The law had granted the authority to appoint a member of the MCWD board, depending on the geographic coverage and population make-up of the particular district.

If the active water service connections of a district are above 75 percent of the supposed total connections, and are within the boundary of a city, then the appointing authority is the mayor, but when the percentage is lower then the appointing authority is founded on the governor of the province where the water district is located, Garcia argued.

This provision is “clear and unequivocal” as to refer to the governor as having the authority to appoint a board member because the district’s total active connections have fallen below 75 percent, from 1996 to the present. This means that the mayor committed a violation in appointing Yu, said the governor.

Osmeña knew this provision fully well, and yet he went on with the appointment, in gross disregard and disrespect of the rule of law, Garcia alleged.

MCWD also allegedly acknowledged an illegal act and allowed Yu to sit in the board. “Actuations of defendants are prejudicial to public interest” and to her, as the governor, whose “power and authority has been usurped and violated,” Garcia said.

The interests of the Cebuanos have been prejudiced also, she said, adding that the interests of the water consumers have now “been placed in a person acting illegally.” — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/RAE