CA upholds 6-month suspension of Caloocan mayor Echiverri

The Court of Appeals upheld the six-month suspension imposed on Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri in July last year for his allted failure to remit over P38 million in employee contributions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). In a 40-page decision penned by CA Associate Justice Agnes Reyes-Carpio, the appeals court said the Office of the Ombudsman did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it issued a preventive suspension against Echiverri last July 18, 2011.   "This court... holds that there was no undue haste on the Ombudsman's part in issuing the preventive suspension order. The fact that the order was issued eleven days from the filing of the complaint-affidavit did not constitute grave abuse of discretion," the court said.   The preventive suspension against Echiverri stemmed from a case filed by Caloocan Vice Mayor Edgar Erice who claimed that the mayor did not remit to the GSIS contributions from city  hall employees from July 1997 to December 2002 and from January 2007 to December 2010.   Echiverri later elevated the case to the appeals court and filed a petition for certiorari, accusing the Office of the Ombudsman of grave abuse for issuing the preventive suspension order even if he was not yet furnished a copy of Erice's affidavit-complaint.   The appeals court eventually issued a 60-day temporary restraining order preventing the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Interior and Local Government from implementing the suspension order. The appeals court, in September 2011, also issued a writ of preliminary injunction, while the court was determining the main case against Echiverri.   However, in its latest decision, the Court of Appeals, apart from saying the Ombudsman did not err when it issued the suspension, also lifted the writ of preliminary injunction.   The appeals court also did not give "much credence" to Echiverri's claim that there was a "malicious conspiracy" between the Ombudsman and Erice, a perceived political adversary of the Echiverris.'   "The Deputy Ombudsman and the Ombudsman, being public officials, enjoy the presumption that they performed their duties regularly. Such presumption can be overcome only by strong and convincing evidence. No such evidence exists in this case," the CA said.   The CA said Erice, contrary to Echiverri's allegation, has "the personality to file" the complaint against the mayor since Erice is also a member of the GSIS and was "directly affected by the suspension of his loan privileges" when Echiveri failed to remit employee contributions. - VVP, GMA News