The fall of Rep. Bebot Abellanosa

The most unexpected but welcome news for the Cebu media is the recent appointment of Msgr. Joseph Tan as media liaison officer. He replaces Mgsr. Achilles Dakay who held this post for more than two decades. When his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal retired and was replaced by Archbishop Jose Palma, we thought that Msgr. Dakay would be replaced right away. But this took three years to happen and we would like to thank Msgr. Dakay for his years of service to the Cebu media. So congratulations to Msgr. Tan for this appointment and we'd like to tell him that we are at his service in the service of the Catholic Church.

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The news headlines the other day screamed "Ombuds sacks Rep. Abellanosa!" Apparently the Office of the Ombudsman found Rep. Rodrigo "Bebot" Abellanosa guilty of grave misconduct for his school's involvement in the City of Cebu's scholarship program, which is a clear case of "Conflict of Interest." This case before the Office of the Ombudsman was filed by Philip Banquiran last December 2012 for violations of Republic Act. No.3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

This must have been the speediest act by the Office of the Ombudsman that we've seen in a long time. Of course, Rep. Bebot still insists that there was no conflict of interest in this case as he had no hand in determining what schools would be accredited in the scholarship program as this was the job of the Office of the Mayor. But at that time, it was more than obvious to us that Bebot and former Mayor Tomas Osmeña were real pals to the point that when the latter ran for re-election as Cebu City Mayor, he chose Bebot Abellanosa to take on his seat as congressman for the South District of Cebu City, which he won.

Rep. Bebot also tried to use the worn out "Aguinaldo Doctrine" as his defense, but the Office of the Ombudsman ruled that the Aguinaldo Doctrine can only be used when an elected person charged with graft and corruption gets re-elected into the same office. This could not be used in the case of Bebot Abellanosa as he was only recently elected as congressman in Cebu City.

According to Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer 1 Jess Vincent Dela Pena, the conflict of interest here was "obvious." He added, "Respondent indirectly or directly has material or pecuniary interest in the implementation of the scholarship program. In addition, the implementation benefited the respondent's schools. Respondent's exercise of dual position has created conflict of interest, which is prohibited by law. It is not an isolated incident, nor an effort of judgment"

In my book, the money involved in this graft case is insignificant if you compare the monies that many congressmen and senators used in the so-called Napoles scam. But then this case isn't about the amount of money used but the issue of conflict of interest.

When we learned about this way back in 2012, we already warned Rep. Bebot Abellanosa in our columns that he faces a case of conflict of interest. But he had what we call a "damn-the-torpedoes" attitude, which a lot of people found arrogant. Well, I guess he got that from his master, former Mayor Tomas Osmeña, whose arrogance was one of the principal reasons why he lost the last elections despite the seemingly huge advantage of the Liberal Party  over what little opposition was there in Team Rama.

I don't know why we are suddenly seeing speedy justice from the Office of the Ombudsman. Could it be tied to the coming visit of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales this coming Nov. 27th? While people are elated about the uncanny speed in dispensing justice in the Abellanosa case, this still brings us to ask…what happened to the case of former Congresswoman Clavel Asas Martinez? I hope that the Ombudsman has ready answers when she comes to Cebu next week.

Meanwhile, questions have risen as to the dismissal of Rep. Bebot Abellanosa from public service. Does this carry a perpetual ban for him not to run for public office anymore? Secondly, if he has been dismissed and found guilty for grave misconduct… would this mean that the Office of the Ombudsman would file criminal charges against him in the Sandiganbayan? We hope that the Office of the Ombudsman would give us answers to our questions, after all Rep. Bebot is the first congressman in Cebu to be dismissed from his office in my recent memory.

Hopefully this ugly episode would teach our political leaders  a lesson that they just can't take things for granted. Prudence dictated that Rep. Abellanosa should not have included his own school in that program and he'd still be representing the South District today. What's bad in this case is that the South District of Cebu now has no one to represent them.