Ombudsman unseats Albay mayor for operating cockpit

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman yesterday announced the dismissal from the service of the sitting mayor of Malinao town in Albay who was found guilty of building, owning and operating a cockpit.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Malinao Mayor Avelino Ceriola is also being slapped with the accessory penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, perpetual disqualification from holding public office, and prohibition from taking civil service examination.

Ceriola was found guilty of an administrative offense stemming from violations of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Local Government Code.

In a 15-page decision, Morales said Ceriola constructed and operated the cockpit in 2011 on his land under a company he owned and controlled.

Ceriola, according to the ruling, “should be held administratively liable for committing unlawful acts in a manner that evinces deliberate intent and flagrant disregard of established rule.”

Ombudsman probers said Section 89 of the Local Government Code provides that any local government official or employee is prohibited from having pecuniary interests, whether directly or indirectly, in any cockpit or other games licensed by the local government unit.

Evidence show that Ceriola was the president, board chairman and majority stockholder of Ceriola Corp. from the time it undertook the construction and operation of the cockpit without the necessary building and business permits until it was granted a “favorable endorsement” to reconstruct and re-operate the New Malinao Cockpit Arena by the municipal council through Resolution No. 46 issued on Sept. 20, 2011, which Ceriola himself approved. 

The Office of the Ombudsman said the law prohibits the mere holding by a public officer of any direct or indirect interest in any business, contract or transaction in which he intervenes or takes part in an official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest.

Probers also found that Ceriola himself issued a self-serving mayor’s permit in favor of Ceriola Corp. and the New Malinao Cockpit Arena.

The Local Government Code provides that it is the duty of the municipal council, not the mayor, “to authorize and license the establishment, operation, and maintenance of cockpits, and regulate cockfighting and commercial breeding of gamecocks.”

Ombudsman probers said Ceriola utterly failed to live up to the duties of a public officer in upholding the law as he “exhibited the kind of wanton and deliberate disregard of the law which would qualify as grave misconduct under the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service.” 

The case against Ceriola stemmed from a complaint filed on May 18, 2012 by Malinao Councilor Ervin Fajut.