Follow suspension order, vice mayor tells Echiverri

Caloocan Vice Mayor Edgar Erice said Wednesday there was no other option left for embattled Mayor Enrico Echiverri but to step down and follow the six-month suspension order from the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged failure to remit the contributions of City Hall employees to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Erice said the Department of Interior and Local Government might serve the suspension order anytime this week, as it waits for a copy of the Court of Appeal’s recent decision affirming the antigraft body’s suspension order on July 18, 2011.

“He may ask his supporters to barricade city hall to prevent the authorities from serving the order, but still the (upholding) of the order is final and executory,” said Erice, the accuser in the complaint filed in the Office of the Ombudsman.

In a ruling on Monday, the appellate court did not give weight to Echiverri’s claim that there was a “malicious conspiracy between the antigraft body and Erice” and instead said the Office of the Ombudsman was not committing grave abuse of discretion.

Apart from Echiverri, the vice mayor also accused city treasurer Evelina Garma, budget officer Jesusa Garcia and city accountant Edna Centeno of failing to turn over to the GSIS the employees’ contributions amounting to more than P340 million.

The vice mayor had claimed that employees of the city government have not used their benefits since 2006.

Before the suspension order was served, the appellate court had issued a temporary restraining order and later a preliminary injunction favoring Echiverri and his camp.

“I feel vindicated. (Echiverri) should have been suspended months ago,” Erice said. “Despite entering into a memorandum of agreement with GSIS on the payment of the arrears in the contribution, irreparable damage to the employees had been done,” he said.

Erice said the city government had to pay penalties and interest worth P54 million to settle its debts to GSIS.

“These did come not from the pocket of Mayor Echiverri but from the funds of the city government,” he added.

Echiverri has refused to give a statement to the media about the latest court ruling, saying his office had yet to receive a copy of the order.

The public information office of Caloocan said it was “business as usual” at city hall on Wednesday.

Earlier, Echiverri said the reason why the employees could not enjoy their benefits from the GSIS was because of the “faulty records” of employees who have retired, resigned, died or transferred to other government offices.

Last October, Echiverri told the city employees that they could use their GSIS benefits after the agreement between him and the GSIS had been signed.

Erice, however, said the MOA was an “admission of guilt” and that he would submit a copy to the Ombudsman to bolster his claims.