Abellanosa asks Ombuds to reconsider dismissal

CEBU, Philippines -  Cebu City south district Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa who was found guilty of grave misconduct for conflict of interest has appealed the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman on grounds of jurisdiction. 

“My lawyers have filed motions for reconsiderations so the resolution of the Office of the Ombudsman is not yet final,” he said in a text message.

Abellanosa contends that it is the House of Representatives and not the Ombudsman that has jurisdiction over the issue.

“We hope to clarify certain points the investigator from the Office of the Ombudsman for the Visayas may have overlooked,” Abellanosa said.

“For the administrative case, we are raising the jurisdictional issue that it is not the Ombudsman but Congress that should investigate a congressman. The Ombudsman Act is clear that it has disciplinary authority over elective and appointive officials except impeachable officials, members of Congress, and the Judiciary,” Abellanosa said in a statement.

The Ombudsman has ruled that there was conflict of interest in Abellanosa’s move to approve scholarship grants of the city government while he sat both as city councilor and owner and majority shareholder of ACT in 2010. 

The Asian College of Technology International Education Foundation Inc. (ACTIEF) has also benefited from the scholarship agreement.

Abellanosa contended, however, that his election to public office in 2013 made the complaint moot and academic.

He said there is also “no personal gain or material interest derived by a trustee or officer in a non-stock non-profit corporation,” in reference to ACTIEF.

“There can be no misconduct here and no liability for helping improve the chances of less fortunate students at success, and for following the guidelines provided in the Local Government Code,” he said.

He said the scholars themselves were the ones who chose the school they wanted to enroll in.

Payment

Despite the situation, the city government is willing to pay P110, 782, 373 to ACT as tuition of its scholars.

“The position of the city is very clear, if there are some technicalities and legalities on a person, students will not be deprived. We have to pay our obligation to the school regardless of who is the head. Let that payment to be proceeded kay di man na mahimo nga dili bayran kay naa man didto atong mga scholars,” Mayor Michael Rama said via teleconference yesterday.

City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said the payment will most probably be charged against this year’s P637 million General Fund. The city has paid P41 million to ACT early this year.

Based on records of the city scholarship committee, the city government owes schools around P110.8 million for the tuition of 3,105 scholars enrolled in ACT. This amount covers unpaid tuition starting from the first and second semesters of academic year 2013-2014 (P80,937,144.76) until first semester of academic year 2014-2015 (P29,845,228.83).

Ester Cubero of the City Scholarship Committee said the payment for 2013-2014 is now with the City Treasurer’s Office and is ready for disbursement. The second semester of 2014-2015 awaits payment pending certificates on the scholars’ academic standing.

Cubero added that the billing for second semester of 2014-2015 will be issued by January next year.

Move students?

With Abellanosa’s case, Cubero said the committee will convene tomorrow, Friday, to discuss the payables and whether the students will be transferred to other accredited schools or not.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo has asked the scholarship committee to transfer the city scholars at ACT to other schools.

Cubero said the committee may just reconsider the rule that students enrolled in one accredited school can no longer be transferred to another so that monitoring will be easier.

Rama also said the agreement with ACT has to be revisited and reviewed.

The Ombudsman has ordered the filing of a criminal case in court against Abellanosa and ordered further that his retirement benefits be cancelled and he be disqualified from public office perpetually. — (FREEMAN)