Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano ready to face raps

MANILA, Philippines - Taguig City Mayor Laarni “Lani” Cayetano is ready to face the case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against her and acting Taguig City Administrator Jose Luis Montales before the Sandiganbayan.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday indicted Cayetano and Montales for violation of Article 143 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes persons who, by force or fraud, prevent or tend to prevent the meetings of local legislative bodies.

"This is an old case that had been previously dismissed by the ombudsman, for lack of any basis. For some reason, and despite the certainty that the courts would likewise dismiss the case because the evidence would not stand up, the baseless charges against us have been resurrected," said Cayetano in a statement sent to reporters.

"We are confident that the courts will dismiss the case. For this reason, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves before the courts as public servants who are mistakenly accused of wrongdoing should do," she added.

The case arose from the eviction of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) or city council from its traditional venue and its transfer to a small room in the city auditorium in August 2010.

Due to limited space, the SP was forced to hold its proceedings on the staircase of the city hall for its maiden session and in various venues inside and outside the city hall for the next 14 sessions.

The SP members said that the padlocking of the session hall was an act of hostility, premeditated and executed with undue haste and afforded no prior consultation and nor prior notice.

It would be recalled that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales last August recommended the filing of a case against Cayateno and Montales before the Sandiganbayan after it junked the respondents' explanation that the move was part of the city's reengineering and reorganizational plan, noting that there was no plan nor a semblance of a project study that would validate the necessity of effecting immediate change in the layout of the city hall offices.

The ombudsman also earlier said the respondents have failed to comply with a provision of the Local Government Code, which requires that the power bestowed upon the local chief executive to assign and allocate office spaces must be exercised to promote efficient and economical governance.

But according to Cayetano, the ombudsman’s complaint was merely a revival of a similar and earlier complaint filed with the ombudsman but was dismissed in 2011.

“Gusto ko lang ho una sa lahat na sabihin na talagang ikinagulat po natin ang naging desisyon po na ito ng ombudsman. Ikinagulat sapagkat ito pong kasong ito ay nadismiss na noong taong 2011. Ang kaso po ay kaugnay sa isinampang reklamo o demanda sa akin ng taong 2010 na noon ay mga hindi kaalyadong mga pulitiko sa lungsod ng Taguig,” Cayetano said in a previous statement.

“Ito po ay reklamo nila sa akin daw pong pagpipigil na sila po ay makapagconduct ng kanilang regular session na akin naman pong naipaliwanag ng malinaw na kailanman ay ‘di ko po pinigilan ang sangguniang panglungsod na sila po ay makapagconduct ng regular session po nila. Gusto ko naman din hong sabihin na ito naman ay haharapin natin. I-eexhaust po natin lahat ng mga legal remedies natin dahil tayo naman po ‘di tayo papabayaan na yung nga katulad nito ay makaabala sa services na binibigay natin  sa ating mga kababayan. We are confident that we will win,” she added.

Montales also earlier said that there is no basis for the complaint lodged before the ombudsman as the holding of the council session was not prevented and that an alternate session hall was even provided.

“Ang charge is we prevented them from holding their session. We did not because we provide a session hall complete with amenities and to use the session instead they performed the session in the stairway. So obviously there is political color,” he said.