Ex-Cebu City mayor goes to SC to halt dismissal
Dismissed Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss an ongoing case against him before the Office of the Ombudsman that ordered him dismissed from office over alleged nepotism and grave misconduct, calling it “politically motivated” and “unjustifiably delayed.”
In his petition for mandamus and prohibition filed on Monday, Rama asked the high tribunal to stop the Office of the Ombudsman’s enforcement of its Sept. 9, 2024, dismissal order against him and reinstate him as Cebu City mayor.
Named respondents in the petition were the Office of the Ombudsman and Jonel Saceda, also known as Inday Josa Chiongbian Osmeña.
The case stemmed from a January 2023 complaint by Saceda, who accused Rama of nepotism and grave misconduct for appointing his two brothers-in-law, Elmer Gimenez Mandanat and Gomer Gimenez Mandanat, as casual employees of the Cebu City government.
On Sept. 9, 2024, the Ombudsman found Rama guilty of the charges against him and meted him with a sentence of perpetual disqualification from reemployment in government service.
In his present petition, Rama challenged the proceedings before the Ombudsman, alleging that it had been “marred with unexplained anomalies and irregularities,” among which was its “arbitrary failure to follow its own rules of procedure, resulting in the inordinate delay in the resolution of the case.”
After the Ombudsman released its Sept. 9 decision, Rama said he filed a motion for reconsideration on Oct. 15, 2024, and a subsequent urgent motion to resolve the case on Nov. 7, 2024, both of which, up to this date, remained unresolved.
Unjustified delay
Rama argued the Ombudsman acted with grave abuse of discretion and violated its own rule, particularly Rule III, Section 112 of Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2020, when it exceeded the prescribed 12-month period for ruling on a case.
The “unjustified delay,” he said, continues to cause prejudice against him, compelling him to file the Supreme Court case seeking for the outright dismissal of the case and praying for an injunctive relief.
“It is also emphasized that time is of the essence here, given the upcoming 2025 midterm elections. The pendency of the proceedings in the Ombudsman Case hangs a cloud over Mayor Rama’s qualifications as a candidate,” the petition read in part.
Rama also questioned the “flip-flopping” of the venue when the case was transferred from the Ombudsman in Visayas and back to the central office “without even so much as proper notice or justification for such transfer.”
“This unexpected development became another source of distress for Mayor Rama since it came out of nowhere and it left him befuddled and anxious as to what such transfer would entail,” the petition said.
“These peculiar circumstances juxtaposed together demonstrate that there is a very strong indication that Mayor Rama is being singled out and maliciously prosecuted through frivolous and politically motivated complaints,” it added.
