Tom faces plaint before Office of the President

CEBU, Philippines — The ongoing word war between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 Director Victor Caindec has taken another turn.

Caindec has filed a complaint against Osmeña before the Office of the President for gross negligence, dereliction of duty, and grave abuse of authority, among others on August 20.

The complaint stemmed from Osmeña’s executive order No. 34, which seeks to penalize counterflowing.

Caindec said the mayor has violated Section 60, paragraphs c, e, and h of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code.

“I am humbly requesting the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines to conduct an investigation and impose the corresponding disciplinary action, if warranted on Mayor Tomas Osmeña for possible violation of Republic Act No. 7160,” read the complaint.

Caindec said the implementation of the EO, which was issued in February this year, was illegal.

Citing Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, the director said only LTO has the right to impound vehicles.

The city government has been impounding cars and motorcycles caught counterflowing in the streets. Vehicles will be impounded for 30 days.

“First and foremost there remains to be a question whether the EO was illegal or not to begin with. However, on the point of LTO being the proper authority delegated by law to have that responsibility of confiscating licenses and also the confiscation of vehicles under the RA 4136,” Caindec told The FREEMAN in a phone interview.

“So sa among panlantaw that is not in the authority of the LGU and we have cited several cases of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court where there’s a lot of opinion favoring our perspective. Be that as it may, the question of the EO has never been challenged judicially,” he added.

Osmeña, in a separate interview, said he will answer the complaint.

“I will answer it,” he said.

The mayor believed that Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino is pulling the string behind the complaint.

“Dino, who else?” he said.

Dino and Osmeña are not in good terms. They are, in fact, at odds with each other over the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Cebu City that Osmeña is pushing and Dino is “blocking.”

On the other hand, the conflict between Osmeña and Caindec started when the mayor said that he plans to file charges against LTO officials who are responsible for the delay in vehicle registrations.

Caindec, however, believed that Osmeña was out of line and should instead focus on the problems that the city is facing like flooding, traffic, and garbage disposal.

This sparked the ongoing rift between the two government officials.

In a separate development, a certain Rev. Fr. Guillermo Leonardo Olaivar Jr. was arrested in an entrapment operation by the agents of the National Bureau of Investigation-7.

The 62-year-old Olaivar was apprehended for allegedly issuing falsified driver’s license and vehicle registration, said Caindec.

Authorities seized 33 pieces of fake driver’s license cards, two pieces of fake certificates of vehicle registration, and four pieces of fake LTO receipts.

But Olaivar, who introduced himself as a missionary priest, belied the allegation.

LTO-7 sought the help of NBI-7 after receiving reports about Olaivar’s illegal transactions.

Lawyer Wenceslao Galendez Jr., NBI-7 supervising agent, said Olaivar is set to face charges for possession of falsified documents. — Le Antojado/KBQ (FREEMAN)