Cebu City mayor charged for inaction

Fresh from his assumption as permanent Cebu City Mayor, Raymond Alvin Garcia is now facing charges of Grave Misconduct and Serious Neglect of Duty for his procrastinations and possible violations of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for giving undue advantage to the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project Management before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mayoralty candidate and taxpayer Yogi Felimon Ruiz on 17 October 2024 said the lampposts have since been removed but the footings and other ground works and debris have been recklessly left on the center of the lanes for four months already.

“We are writing to you as simple taxpayers and business owners of the City of Cebu to complain about the continuing closure of at least two lanes of road along Osmeña Boulevard brought about by the installation by the Cebu BRT Project of lampposts on both sides of the road from Del Rosario Street to Plaza Independencia, without first securing permits therefor, thereby posing as a threat to the lives and limbs of motorists and pedestrians using these roads on top of businesses in the area practically being blocked entry of clients or customers by the road closures,” said Ruiz in his letter-complaint addressed to Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Dante Vargas.

He narrated that the Link-to-Port component of the Cebu BRT Project must further have been stopped altogether the moment that the City Government had discovered that the Cebu BRT Project Management has not secured the proper permits and clearances for their activities.

“The presence of these road hazards even as of this writing clearly demonstrates the inaction and indifference of Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia on these disasters-waiting-to-happen and readily bares that all his pronouncements on the matter were mere lip service,” Ruiz stressed.

“It is therefore respectfully prayed that after due investigation now Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia be found administratively liable for his actions and omissions and meted the appropriate penalty.

“In the interim, the preventive suspension of Mayor Alvin Garcia from office pursuant to Section 9, Rule III, of the Ombudsman Administrative Order No. 07, as amended by Administrative Order No. 17, should prove proper on account of the following: (1) the evidence against him is public knowledge and therefore undeniably strong; (2) the charge against him involves gross misconduct; (3) the charge warrants his removal from office; and (4) his continued stay therein should prejudice the just, fair and independent disposition of the case against him,” the complaint added.

Garcia, for his part, told media that the case is “ purely political.”

He has not received yet the complaint filed against him.