Malonzo wins in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court (SC) denied yesterday with finality the government's appeal for Caloocan City Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo and nine others to be suspended for 90 days for alleged unlawful realignment of public funds.

The en banc decision upheld the high court's July 1999 ruling which nullified Malonzo's suspension imposed by Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora and former Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. The Caloocan officials were then reinstated.

Justice Sabino de Leon, who penned the 10-page resolution, reiterated retired SC Justice Flerida Ruth Romero's ponencia that the Office of the President abused its powers in imposing the questionable administrative sanction.

"There was grave abuse of discretion on the part of the OP. Its findings are totally devoid of merit or support in the record. Hence, the decision of the Executive Secretary suspending the petitioners (Malonzo et. al.), on the basis of the said findings, constitutes grave abuse of discretion amounting to an act done in excess of jurisdiction," he wrote.

De Leon also rebutted point by point the arguments presented by government lawyers in their appeal and reiterated the previous SC ruling.

Last July, the Supreme Court said the basis for which the government anchored its suspension order was "flawed" and was "lacking in factual and legal support" since the P50 million and P39.3 million realignments are "two distinct amounts separate from each other" and not at all connected.

"The appropriation of P39.3 million under Ordinance 0246 Series of 1997 is, we believe, still a subsisting appropriation that has never been lumped together with other funds to arrive at the sum of P50 million allocated in the 1998 budget," the High Court, voting 11-3, stated in an en banc decision.

In her 20-page valedictory decision, retired Justice Romero had these strong words to say: "The OP, being the powerful office that law and tradition have endowed it, needs no mighty blows on the anvil of authority to ensure obedience to its pronouncements. It would be more in keeping with its exalted stature if its actions could safeguard the very freedoms so sedulously nurtured by the people."

In 1997, the Caloocan City Council under Malonzo amended ex-mayor Macario Asistio Jr.'s Ordinance 0168 of 1994, and increased its original allocation of P35.3 million to P39.9 million (Ordinance 0246) intended for the expropriation of 79.9 hectares of land in Maysilo Estate owned by CLT Realty Development Corp.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod then adopted Ordinance 0254 of 1998, which allows a "reversion of appropriation," after the city treasurer allowed it, since the CLT's civil suit regarding the Caloocan-Navotas boundary dispute of the Maysilo estate was "idle" and still in question before a lower court.

With this, Zamora and Puno said Malonzo and nine other local officials "conspired and confederated" in violating the Local Government Code of 1991 by way of unlawful realignment. They said they were acting on an administrative complaint filed by a certain Eduardo Tibor before the Office of the President.

In expressing his disgust over his unjustified suspension, Malonzo had said that it was his being "on the wrong side of the political fence" that caused all the trouble because he was a member of opposition Lakas-NUCD while the Asistios enjoy the trust and confidence of the Estrada administration.

"Petitioners (Malonzo et al) were acting within legal bounds. Respondents (Zamora et al) seem to have turned a blind eye or simply refused to consider facts that would have enlightened them and exculpated herein petitioners (Malonzo and nine others) to such an extent that they arrived at the erroneous conclusion," Romero then asserted.

Malonzo was slapped with the suspension order last March 15 and elevated his case to the High Tribunal seven days later. On April 5, the SC issued a status quo order reinstating Malonzo and unseating OIC Mayor Macario Asistio III, whose family the actor-turned-politician called "sour losers and unsurpers."

Among those suspended, aside from Malonzo and Malapitan, were councilors Chito Abel, Benjamin Manlapig, Edgar Erice, actor-comedian Dennis Padilla, Zaldy Dolatre, Susana Punzalan, Henrys Cammayo and Luis Tito Varela.