Appeals court upholds Pantabangan mayor

THE COURT of Appeals has affirmed with finality its reversal of the dismissal order by the Office of the Ombudsman against Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija mayor Lucio Uera, who was earlier dismissed after he suspended and terminated several municipal employees.

In a six-page resolution dated Oct. 13, the appellate court’s Special 7th Division denied the motions for reconsideration filed by the Ombudsman and the suspended employees who sought to reverse the court’s decision last June that granted Uera a permanent injunction against his suspension.

The court said after thoroughly reviewing the motions, they found “no cogent reason” to warrant an alteration or reversal of the decision.

The other division members, Justices Myra Garcia-Fernandez and Carmelita Salandanan Manahan, concurred with the ruling.

The suspension and termination of employees for unauthorized absences took place during Uera’s first term as mayor from 2004 to 2007. After he stepped down as mayor, the Ombudsman found him guilty and merely fined him with a year’s worth of salary.

Uera filed a petition for review before the court and in the meantime got reelected mayor in the 2013 elections. In November last year, while the review case was still being heard, the Ombudsman modified the penalty to dismissal for grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority.

Uera, however, said that upon his reelection, his offenses were already extinguished due to the so-called condonation doctrine.

But the Ombudsman proceeded to suspend the mayor in February. Uera secured a temporary restraining order from the court the following month but when it expired last May, the vice mayor, Ruben Huerta, began acting as mayor.

In its June ruling, the Court of Appeals said the condonation doctrine did not apply to Uera since his two terms as mayor were not consecutive. However, the tribunal cleared him of any administrative or criminal offense and chided the Ombudsman for modifying its original ruling while the review petition was ongoing.