DAUGHTERS of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and the late Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr. yesterday faced off at the start of a marathon hearing of the administrative complaint filed by Sanchez agaisnt the Capitol’s chief executive over usurpation of power and budget slashes that dimnished his staff and office.
Christina Codilla-Frasco represented her mother, the governor, as lead counsel.
She asked for the dismissal of the complaint, saying heirs of the late Sanchez “cannot inherit” the right to pursue the complaint.
Frasco said the family is not the “party in interest”.
“How can they proceed without a complainant?” Frasco said in an interview.
“We still have preliminary questions with regards to the propriety of the party in interest.”
She was accompanied by the governor’s son Paulo Garcia with his wife, and Capitol consultant Jong Sepulveda.
Sanchez’s eldest daughter Gigi Sanchez-Zaballero led family members who appeared for the hearing past 2 p.m. in black shirts that read “Cebu loves Vice Governor Greg.”
Zaballero told Cebu Daily News the family would pursue the case no matter what. They will mark the 40th day of her father’s death today with a Mass at the Mactan memorial Garden.
Lawyer Oliveros Kintanar, who represented the Sanchez family, objected to a dismissal.
He showed a letter from the Office of the President authorizing Zaballero to take charge of the complaint.
The move apparently caught the Garcia camp by surprise. Frasco earlier said substitution of the complainant is allowed subject to DILG approval but that Sanchez’s representatives had never asked for it before.
Frasco suggested that the letter be given to the hearing officer, Ranny Spencer Palisoc of the DILG Central Officeto decide.
Both parties agreed to leave it to him to decide whether to accept the letter.
The conference will resumed at 2 plm. today at the office of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas.
Sanchez last year complained that the governor illegally transferred funds for salaries and wages of his office with intent to usurp his appointing power. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus