Santiago alarmed by elective officials resisting suspension, seeks Senate inquiry

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG MONTEGRANDE

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is seeking a Senate inquiry into elective officials’ practice of barricading their offices and calling for mass action to resist suspension or removal by authorities.

In a resolution she is set to file on Monday, Santiago urged her colleagues to determine the need for a law punishing officials who launch mass protests to bar the service of their suspension or removal orders.

“I am alarmed that the brazen act of resisting suspension is becoming normal practice. What makes elective officials think that they are indisputably entitled to their offices? They are not absolute rulers; they are subject to the law,” she said in a statement  on Friday.

The resolution particularly  cited  the  case of  Makati Mayor  Jejomar Erwin  “Jun-Jun” Binay  who refused to step down from his  post when he was preventively suspended  by the  Office of the   Ombudsman.  His supporters also allegedly barred agents of the Department of Interior and Local Government from entering Makati City Hall to implement the suspension, which prompted them to just post the suspension order instead of serving it.

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During   the Supreme Court’s   hearing  on the case,   Binay lawyers also reportedly admitted that the Makati mayor defied the Ombudsman, and did not leave his office pending a temporary restraining order from the Court of Appeals.

“While officials are entitled to relief from penalty, in the form of temporary restraining orders or injunctions, they must seek such from the proper venue and, pending such relief, humbly step down from office,”  Santiago said.

The resolution also cited the cases of ousted Laguna Governor ER Ejercito, who the Commission on Elections in 2014 found guilty of overspending, and Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, who was suspended by Malacañang in 2013.

“In all these cases, the officials facing penalty insisted on due process yet refused to respect the same. This contradiction only shows how self-serving our elective officials have become,” the senator said.

Santiago added that barricades in favor of elective officials being penalized threaten to disrupt the delivery of public services, again citing as example the Binay case, where employees in Makati were confused between orders from the mayor and then Acting Mayor Kid Peña.

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The senator also warned that such practice inevitably erodes the punitive power of government authorities such as the Ombudsman, the Civil Service Commission, and the DILG.

“If left unchecked, this deplorable practice will embolden officials to be corrupt. We must protect the integrity of institutions that mete out penalties in upholding the constitutional principle that public office is a public trust,” she said.

Santiago said any measure  that the Senate will contemplate against the practice of resisting suspension should focus on prohibiting elective officials from supporting or financing mass barricades to their benefit, especially using public funds.

“The right to assemble is enshrined in the Constitution. But in cases like this, we should ask: Did the supporters assemble voluntarily or were they paid or given incentives? If it is the latter, were public funds used?” she further said. DPL