{"id":221071,"date":"2019-07-01T21:15:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T01:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=221071"},"modified":"2019-07-01T21:15:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T01:15:35","slug":"dilg-to-probe-osmena-over-clearing-of-cebu-city-mayors-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/01\/dilg-to-probe-osmena-over-clearing-of-cebu-city-mayors-office\/","title":{"rendered":"DILG to probe Osme\u00f1a over ‘clearing’ of Cebu City mayor’s office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe DILG will investigate the reported act of former Cebu Mayor Osmena of stripping the Mayor’s office of everything from ceiling to floor tiles rendering it unusable and completely bare. The investigation will uncover the facts of this matter,\u201d DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya told reporters on Monday.\u00a0 (File photo:<\/a> Tommy Osme\u00f1a\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0<\/strong>—\u00a0The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is set to investigate former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osme\u00f1a over his order to remove all facilities and furniture in his office shortly before stepping down from his post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DILG will investigate the reported act of former Cebu Mayor Osmena of stripping the Mayor’s office of everything from ceiling to floor tiles rendering it unusable and completely bare. The investigation will uncover the facts of this matter,\u201d DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

He said as a general rule, an official may only remove movable furniture and fixtures such as chairs, tables, and computers that are his part of personal property when he ends his term.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the act of even removing what are considered immovable objects like ceiling, walls, and the tiles is already bad faith because it renders the office, which is government property, as unusable by his successor and therefore affects the delivery of public service to the people of Cebu City. Under the Civil Code, immovable improvements may only be removed by the owner if it does not cause damage or injury to the work constructed,\u201d Malaya explained.<\/p>\n

He also suggested that Osme\u00f1a should have filed a claim for indemnification for all the immovable improvements that he introduced to the office so that reimbursements should have been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to strip the mayor’s office of everything is strange, uncalled for, and could expose the mayor to legal action for violation of various laws in [Republic Act] 3019 for causing injury to the government,\u201d Malaya pointed out.<\/p>\n

Epimaco Densing III, DILG undersecretary, meanwhile said Osme\u00f1a should prove that he indeed paid personally for the improvements in his former office.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Osme\u00f1a] needs to prove that since all the things inside the office is government property,\u201d Densing said in a radio interview Monday.<\/p>\n

Densing said the newly-elected local government officials should file before the Office of the Ombudsman charges for destroying government properties and for failing to adhere to the agency\u2019s order for the proper transition of the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assume that those are government property unless proven otherwise. Second, (former) Mayor Osme\u00f1a can face charges because first of all, we issued a memorandum circular signed by Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o that there must be proper transition. It seems he did not cooperate with the transition and because of that, he can face administrative charges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can be also held criminally liable at the Office of the Ombudsman because it can be considered damage to property. The government has to spend taxpayers’ money to restore government property,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella defeated Osme\u00f1a in the May 13 mid-term elections.<\/p>\n

The former mayor had said that he paid for the repair of the office in 2010 with his friends amounting to PHP2 million since the budget had been rejected by Labella, who was the council head back then.<\/p>\n

Labella was surprised when he found the mayor\u2019s office \u201cvandalized\u201d where it was disconnected from its plumbing system and electrical connection, the ceiling and tiles were stripped off and no furniture were left aside from the two industrial air-conditioners and some chairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0—\u00a0The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is set to investigate former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osme\u00f1a over …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":220777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-christopher-lloyd-caliwan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221077,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221071\/revisions\/221077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}