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The complaint filed before the Ombudsman which sought the suspension of former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña came from retired police colonel Royina Marzan Garma
CEBU, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the criminal and administrative cases against former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña filed by retired police colonel Royina Garma back in 2018.
Osmeña’s legal counsel said they only received on Thursday, September 19, the Ombdusman’s decision dated July 10.
The cases stemmed from Osmeña’s intervention in the arrest of Romeo Apparece, Romeo Cuevas, and Ramir Amaca, who were caught illegally refilling butane canisters with liquefied petroleum gas at Tiburcio Padilla Public Market on August 24, 2018.
Police from Barangay Pari-an detained the three men. That evening, then mayor Osmeña went to the Pari-an police station and ordered the release of the three.
Garma, who was the director of the Cebu City Police Office at the time, filed a case for grave misconduct against Osmeña before the anti-graft office on August 30, 2018. Garma and Osmeña have been at odds during that period with the former mayor blaming the then-police director for the rise in killings in his city.
Initially, the ombudsman ruled on February 29 that Osmeña was guilty of grave misconduct and meted the former mayor a one-year suspension. But since he was no longer a government official, the anti-graft office ordered Osmeña to pay a fine amounting to his basic salary for one year when he was the mayor.
“However, after an assiduous review of the records of the instant cases, this Office finds the evidence insufficient to support the supposition that Osmeña intended to facilitate the escape of Amaca, Apparece and Cuevas in order to impede, frustrate, or delay the successful investigation and prosecution of the cases to be filed against them by the police,” the ombudsman’s order on July 10 read.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires signed the order which dismissed the criminal and administrative cases against Osmeña for lack of merit.
A decision reversed
According to the ombudsman, the complainant, Garma, failed to prove that Osmeña facilitated the escape of the three men in order to delay any police investigation.
Osmeña had earlier stated in his 2018 counter-affidavit that he was merely responding to a request for assistance from his constituents who reported to him about the “illegal arrest” of vendors and seizure of butane canisters.
The ombudsman said that the complainant never sufficiently opposed Osmeña’s claim and subsequently, prove the former mayor’s criminal intent in his intervention.
“It is also important to bear in mind that dispensing with proof of criminal intent for crimes mala prohibita does not discharge the prosecution’s burden of proving, beyond reasonable doubt, that the prohibited act was done by the accused intentionally,” said the ombudsman.
In effect, the ombudsman’s July 10 order reversed its February 29 decision which found Osmeña guilty of grave misconduct.
“When he was mayor, Tommy Osmeña fought for his constituents, and he got into trouble for it. This latest Ombudsman decision vindicates what mayor Osmeña has been doing—protecting his people at all cost,” Amando Virgil Ligutan, Osmeña’s legal counsel said in a statement sent to Rappler on Thursday, September 19.
Garma was supposed to be present during a congressional hearing on extrajudicial killings and illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hubs on Thursday, September 19. But she did not show up. Osmeña though attended the hearing.
The former Cebu City police director is facing heat for her ties with former president Rodrigo Duterte and his drug war which reportedly took the lives of 30,000 people, according to human rights groups. – Rappler.com
