BY EVANGELINE DE VERA
THE Court of Appeals declared null and void
the six-month suspension slapped on Batangas Gov. Armando
Sanchez in connection with an anomalous P350 million real
property tax computerization project.
In a 50-page decision penned by Associate
Justice Regalado Maambong, the Special Third Division said the
Ombudsman’s ruling on Sept. 26, 2006 was attended with grave
abuse of discretion.
The CA said there was "reason to suspect the
timing and the manner" in how the preventive suspension was
effected and carried out. It also noted that the order was
issued within the election period and that Sanchez seemed to
have been singled out.
"There is an obligation to respect the law
and its implementing rules, rather than appear to exploit it to
trample the people’s mandate, especially during an election
period, even if it appears desirable to do so. Otherwise, our
politics will remain no better," the CA said.
The CA also found as "confounding" the
flip-flopping of the Ombudsman in its orders.
It said that in the first in a series of
orders dated Nov. 16, 2005, the deputy ombudsman for Luzon found
no strong evidence of guilt to put Sanchez under preventive
suspension.
The second order dated March 7, 2006 of the
deputy ombudsman for Luzon denied the motion for reconsideration
and/or recall of suspension order.
The third order dated Sept. 26, 2006 of the
overall deputy ombudsman which modified the March 7 order
granted the prayer of Vice Gov. Ricky Recto to preventively
suspend Sanchez.
But the CA said that at the outset, the
office of the overall deputy ombudsman cannot review and legally
modify the order of a deputy ombudsman. It said the mere
transfer of the case, supposedly to "obviate the impression of
partiality," from Deputy Ombudsman Victor Fernandez to Overall
Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, is "questionable."
"It goes without saying that the overall
deputy ombudsman has no appellate jurisdiction over the decision
or orders of the deputy ombudsman for Luzon. Needless to say,
two co-equal or coordinate public officers or offices, for that
matter, cannot reverse each other’s final and executory order,"
the CA said.
Recto accused Sanchez and 15 other provincial
officials of involvement in the alleged anomalous multi-million
peso computerization contract that Sanchez allegedly awarded to
two private companies without the benefit of a public bidding.
Sanchez filed his petition to void his
suspension last Jan. 17.
Two days later the CA granted the petition
and issued a 60-day temporary restraining order.
On Nov. 16, 2005, the Ombudsman issued an
order preventively suspending the petitioner and other
respondents for "initial findings of irregularities."
In the same order the Ombudsman found that "there was no
clear showing that (petitioner) was aware of the irregularities
in the bidding."
