Rama goes to court to keep treasurer

The Cebu City government has petitioned the court to stop Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima from replacing acting City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva.

The petition for declaratory relief questioned the validity of Purisima’s order for Oliva’s replacement and the appointment of assistant City Treasurer Emma Villarete, as office-in-charge.

The petition is a civil action that asks the court to clarify what are the rights and obligations of the parties in a dispute.

City Hall lawyers said in its petition that Purisima may have “acted with grave abuse of discretion” when it did not act on the City Hall’s earlier motion for reconsideration to the February 2012 order of the Finance Department to replace Oliva with Tessie Camarillo.

Instead of acting on its motion for reconsideration, the Finance Secretary ordered the replacement of Oliva by Villarete.

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young questioned the legal authority of Mayor Michael Rama to file the petition.

“If the court accepts the complaint, there is no problem with me. I just want it known that it did not have council authority,” said Young.

Young said that as a procedure, the mayor has to seek council authority before filing any court case in the name of Cebu City.

In the petition, the plaintiff is the City of Cebu and not the office of the mayor.

Mayor Rama, Young said, is doing everything including the filing of a “nuisance case” in order to retain Oliva.

“The filing of the complaint (against Purisima) was in line with the mayor’s marching orders that at all cost, Oliva should be retained because she will be the one to defend the next supplemental budget,” said Young.

Oliva said in a separate interview that the second supplemental budget (SB2) has not been submitted yet to the city council.

“The office of the city administrator is still working with several departments to identify what should be prioritized in SB2 because of limited sources of funds,” she said.

Young said the council will not recognize Oliva when she appears in their budget hearing to defend SB 2.

Using as basis an order which Purisima issued early this month, Young said, officer-in-charge of the city treasurer’s office is Villarete. Mayor Rama, however, continues to recognize Oliva as city treasurer.

The DOF appoints provincial, city and municipal treasurers.

The purpose of this policy is to shield local government treasurers from the influence of local politicians.