Dumaluan lawyer says ‘No Panglao take-over'

NO, not yet. At least, talks of a take-over in Panglao's top seat is not going to happen tomorrow, or until the Ombudsman hands the decision of the case filed against Mayor Doloriech Dumaluan, the mayor's lawyer said. Until then, and if the decision is not favorable, then there could still be legal remedies and that's when the Supreme Court will be the option. So, when Vice Mayor Pedro Fuentes comes to the office at the Panglao Municipal Hall tomorrow, he would not be storming heavens. This he also shared during a radio interview Friday when asked if he would seize the town's top post.

The Fuertes reaction surfaced after a reported lapse in reglamentary period that the court gave over a Mayor Doloriech Dumaluan filed motion for reconsideration in line with his case. And with the perception that Mayor Dumaluan is not going to hand the mayor's seat in a silver platter, the besieged mayor does not have to do a Binay either. In fact, Mayor Dumaluan and his team of lawyers do not need to race against time and explore legal loopholes or fortify the mayor's office to prevent a forced take-over. That is so, because the takeover is never going to happen, Dumaluan lawyers said.

Dumaluan counsel firmly believes that there is no such take-over to happen because his December 2005 preventive suspension was caused a day too early. It was illegal and so the mayor may not follow and illegal order, Atty Alexander Lim shared. With a temporary restraining order and an injunction, the case filed against him has been submitted for decision by the Ombudsman, lawyer Lim said. With this, Lim added that the move for preventive suspension came out so (Dumaluan) could not in any way influence the case has become moot and academic.

Threatened with a preventive suspension teetering on a temporary restraining order and reinforced by a court injunction, Mayor Dumaluan is now confident that what his political enemies see as his exposed Achilles tendon is nothing but a thick layer of armor. That may be the reason why the mayor is just going to consider tomorrow as a regular working day. It may be recalled that in October last year, Dumaluan was sued to the Ombudsman for illegal closure of public road, construction of 3 storey building without permits and within the 20 meter salvage zone in apparent defiance of existing policies. Backing the complaint against Dumaluan for violation of anti-graft and corrupt practices act are Councilors Cerino Hormachuelos, Telesforo Mejos, Vinzencio Arcamo and Dennis Hora. By December 8 of that year and a day before Dumaluan's lawyers would have been forced to file their reply, the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas placed Mayor Dumaluan under preventive suspension for three months without pay arising from the cases filed against him.

The suspension was served by Capitol men, but Dumaluan refused to step down to give in to Vice Mayor Pedro Fuertes' legal assumption. Even then, Judge Suceso Arcamo administered Fuertes' assumption to office, starting another controversy: the legitimacy of Panglao's two mayors. Not budging an inch to hand the seat to political enemy Fuertes, Dumaluan and his lawyers succeeded in getting a 60 days Court of Appeals temporary restraining order implementing the December 8 order. Before the TRO lapsed in February 2006, the court also issued an injunction in favor of Dumaluan.

“This is not a conviction that we have to go to the Supreme Court,” Atty. Lim explained to the Post, thereby defusing fears that the mayor could be “suspended again”. In an exclusive interview, Atty. Lim said the best that Dumaluan's accusers could do is file a motion for the speedy resolution of the case. But without the decision now, all we could do is wait, and if that does not come out before December, then he could bolster his position getting suspension immunity.

In December, when election period nears, an elected public official assumes the immunity from suspensions according to existing laws. In that scenario, if Vice Mayor insists on assuming the town's top post, he could be in again for usurpation of powers, lawyer Lim said. That could also cause another stand-off, a recur of the electrically charged event that happened in December of last year. Then, municipal employees suffered a less merrier Christmas while resolving who between the two sitting mayors has the authority to sign the windfall due them.

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