The Office of the Ombudsman filed a criminal case in the Sandiganbayan against Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano on Wednesday for ordering the closure of the session hall five years ago, displacing the city council.
The Ombudsman said Cayetano and her administrator, Jose Luis Montales, committed “felony” under Article 143 of the Revised Penal Code which prohibits acts “tending to prevent the meeting of the assembly and similar bodies.”
The Taguig mayor is the wife of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano who earlier announced his intention to run for Vice President in the 2016 elections.
According to the complaint, dated Sept. 18 and signed by Assistant Special Prosecutor Charmaine Calalang, Lani Cayetano used her authority to “assign and allocate office spaces albeit improperly and in grave abuse” when she padlocked the session hall in August 2010 to allegedly give way to the reorganization of city hall.
At the time, then Vice Mayor George Elias and all the members of the city council were from the rival party Kilusang Diwa ng Taguig of former Mayor Freddie Tiñga.
According to the Ombudsman, Cayetano and Montales “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously” barred the city councilors from holding their session “by causing the closure of the session hall without proper notice and justifiable reason.”
It added that Cayetano used “force and/or fraud” in displacing the city council which was forced to hold its session at the stairway of city hall.
If found guilty, Cayetano and Montales may face up to six years imprisonment or a fine of not more than P2,000.
Cayetano, however, dismissed the complaint as “an old case that had been previously dismissed by the Ombudsman for lack of any basis.”
“For some reason and despite the certainty that the courts would likewise dismiss the case because the evidence would not stand up, the baseless charges against us have been resurrected,” she said in a statement. “We intend to vigorously defend ourselves before the courts as… public servants who are mistakenly accused of wrongdoing should do.” With Kristine Felisse Mangunay