Echiverri to keep Caloocan's top post

MANILA, Philippines - Enrico Echiverri will keep his post as Caloocan City mayor after a regional trial court (RTC) released Friday a writ of preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) from suspending him and three other city officials.

Caloocan RTC Branch 125 Judge Dionisio Sison, who earlier issued a 20-day temporary restraining order on the case, granted the injunction to Echiverri’s camp yesterday. The TRO expired today.

“Without delving into the propriety of the TRO, which is a legal issue that is solely subject to the de termination of the courts, nor into the merits of all the cases now pending... the DILG has been enjoined to refrain from implementing the order of preventive suspension issued by the Office of the Ombudsman,” Sison stated in the writ.

The Ombudsman handed down a six-month preventive suspension order against Echiverri, city treasurer Evelina Garma, budget officer Jesusa Garcia and accountant Edna Centeno after Vice Mayor Edgar Erice filed a complaint in July 2011, alleging that the city hall employees’ monthly premiums were not being remitted to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Echiverri claimed the city government has repeatedly coordinated with GSIS officials to reconcile payment records. He said this has been accomplished and the GSIS and the city government have forged an agreement on the payment of employee premiums.