Calamity aid hearings end next month

CEBU, Philippines – By first week of December, the Department of the Interior and Local Government hopes to wrap up its investigation on Cebu City government’s “questionable” release of P20,000 calamity aid.

This was disclosed by DILG Summary Hearing Officer Isidro Barrios III during the resumption of the formal investigation yesterday at DILG-7 office in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

Barrios said he has slated the marathon hearings within the month until the December 4 due to the large number of witnesses that the city officials will present.

By “wrap up,” the formal investigation, including the pending presentation of the respondents’ witnesses, shall have already ended. The results of the investigation will then become the basis of DILG’s recommendation to the Office of the President, which will ultimately hand down the final decision.

To recall, it was lawyer Reymelio Delute who filed the case of grave misconduct and abuse of authority against Mayor Michael Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, and City Councilors Nestor Archival Sr., Mary Ann de los Santos, David Tumulak, Nendell Hanz Abella, Sisinio Andales, Alvin Arcilla, Roberto Cabarrubias, Ma. Nida Cabrera, Gerardo Carillo, Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr., and Noel Wenceslao.

Delute questioned the release of P20,000 calamity aid to 4,200 city officials and employees in December 2013, stressing that these people were not directly hit by twin calamities that struck Visayas in the same year: the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in October and super typhoon Yolanda in November.

City officials have announced they will present at least 100 City Hall employees who will stand as witnesses, including the secretary of the City Council, a City Hall resident auditor, and a representative of the Department of Budget and Management-7.

The other respondents, such as Andales, Dizon, Cabrera, Cabarrubias, Arcilla, Gabuya, Archival, and de los Santos, manifested that they would submit their position papers as evidence and to manifest their stand on the case. —/JMD (FREEMAN)