SC stops suspension of Lipa City mayor

The Supreme Court (SC) has stopped the implementation of the suspension order slapped by the Office of the Ombudsman against Lipa City Mayor Meynardo Sabili, who allegedly harassed his clients in a property settlement case.

Issued on Wednesday, the temporary restraining order covered the Ombudsman, Court of Appeals, and the Department of Interior and Local Government, which is empowered by law to carry out the nine-month suspension order.

Sabili was found guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, according to the August 9 resolution signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

The suspension stemmed from a complaint filed last year by Oscar Camerino, Efren Camerino and eight other owners of three parcels of land in Victoria Homes in Barangay Tunasan, Muntinlupa City.

The complainants said Sabili, who introduced himself as a lawyer and real estate broker, agreed in March 2010 to represent them in the settlement cases and other transactions in exchange for ownership of 50,000 square meters of the Victoria property.

But more than two years later, the complainants said Sabili, who is now Lipa City mayor, filed a civil case seeking to get his share of the property even if he allegedly failed to deliver on his tasks.

Sabili also allegedly uttered threatening words to the property owners when he confronted them, escorted by armed men, on July 15, 2012.

This prompted the property owners to file charges of grave misconduct, dishonesty and grave abuse of authority against the mayor before the Ombudsman.

In his defense, Sabili denied threatening his former clients and said he could no longer be held administratively liable in line with the condonation doctrine.

First appearing in Philippine jurisprudence in 1959, the condonation doctrine clears a public official of any administrative liability in the past if he or she is re-elected or in Sabili's case, when he won a second term in 2013. —KBK, GMA News