Binay asks PNP to shelve plans to physically remove Gwen from office

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Vice President (OVP) asked yesterday Philippine National Police (PNP) Central Visayas regional director Chief Superintendent Marcelo Garbo to shelve plans to physically remove suspended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia from the provincial capitol.

Lawyer Ira Pozon, head of the Special Concerns Office of Vice President Jejomar Binay, said such a provocative act could heighten political tension in Cebu and will invite “counter actions that could have political consequences beyond your control.”

Pozon also urged Garbo to guarantee that there will be no casualties in case Garcia is forcibly removed from office.

Garcia has been staying in her office at the provincial capitol since the suspension order was handed down last Dec. 17.

The case stemmed from a 2010 complaint of then Cebu Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. for supposed withholding of his office’s budget.

He asked Garbo to specify if he was acting on his own or on orders from Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II or PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima.

Garbo was earlier quoted as saying that he will only remove Garcia from the capitol if higher authorities order him.

Pozon reminded Garbo that Garcia had already asked the Court of Appeals to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the suspension order against her.

“Due process and the rule of law, not to mention judicial courtesy, require that you hold in abeyance your decision to remove the governor from the provincial capitol,” Pozon said.

He warned Garbo that “such a provocative act could add to the political tension now prevailing in Cebu.”

Malacañang has reminded Binay that President Aquino ordered the suspension of Garcia and not his nemesis, Interior and Local Government Secretary Roxas.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda issued the statement to the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) camp of Binay, former president Estrada and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who accused Roxas, a Liberal Party leader, of political harassment.

“Let me remind our good friends in UNA that Secretary Mar Roxas merely implemented the order of the suspension that was issued by the Office of the President,” he told a previous press briefing in Malacañang. Garcia is a member of UNA.

Roxas lost to Binay in the May 2010 presidential elections and has a pending electoral protest against the Vice President.

Lacierda also called on Binay to stop comparing himself to Garcia.

“The big difference is the credibility of the Aquino administration,” Lacierda said, refuting claims of Binay that he himself defied a 2006 suspension from former president Arroyo, when Aquino’s late mother former President Corazon Aquino even visited and supported him.

Aquino’s spokesman also belied rumors being spread by the camp of UNA that there is “martial law” being imposed in the Cebu provincial capitol, with an emphasis on Roxas’ nickname.

“If you go to Cebu, you will see that the people can freely go around their business and the martial law scenario is only in the minds of those who mounted that particular propaganda. It’s all propaganda,” Lacierda said.