Cebu gov to file counter-suits vs lawyer, Osmeña aide

CEBU — The battle for the provincial capitol has spilled into the courts.

Gov. Pablo Garcia said he was readying a multimillion-peso damage suit and disbarment case against lawyer Edgar Gica and Wilfredo Mulla, an aide of Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeña.

This, after Gica and Mulla filed a complaint against Garcia and his daughter Gwendolyn with the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly setting up Osmeña in a funding scam.

Besides the damage suit and disbarment case, Garcia said the provincial government will also be filing a case against Osmeña and all those allegedly involved in the transfer of P5 million from the vice governor’s discretionary fund to Perdido Lex, an allegedly bogus foundation.

Garcia said the disbarment case he plans to file against Gica stems from the lawyer’s alleged violation of his oath for concocting what he described as false accusations against him and his daughter.

Garcia is barred from seeking a fourth term, leaving Gwendolyn to contest the gubernatorial post against Osmeña and two other candidates.

The governor said he believes Gica thought of the case to save Osmeña who he said was already recommended for criminal prosecution by the Ombudsman along with Mulla and the incorporators of Perdido Lex.

Garcia said he will file the cases after the elections so that he can personally attend to them.

Aside from Garcia and his daughter, Mulla included Milagros Herrera and Fe Tan, the supposed president and corporate secretary, respectively, of Perdido Lex, in the complaint.

Mulla alleged that Gwendolyn induced the execution of a memorandum of agreement between the provincial government and the foundation, which Garcia and Herrera signed, to implement a computerization program she herself suggested to Osmeña.

He claimed Gwendolyn did so with the alleged intention to create a situation where Osmeña could be set up the moment he released the funds to the bogus foundation.

He claimed it was Gwendolyn who suggested to Osmeña back in 2002 the launching of a computer education program for the youth, to be funded by Osmeña’s office.

Mulla claimed the governor was initially not keen on the project but Gwendolyn insisted to Osmeña that she could take care of this problem.

Gwendolyn’s influence on her father was allegedly demonstrated when Garcia eventually signed the agreement on Dec. 9, 2002 even before the required accreditation was issued to Perdido Lex on Jan. 14, 2003. — Freeman News Service