CEBU CITY – A string of charges were filed yesterday against former Mayor Tomas Osmeña for stripping the Mayor’s Office bare when he left the City Hall last June.
Aside from Osmeña, also charged before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas were his executive assistants Raymund Paul Climaco Taboada and Francisco Fernandez.
Also named respondents were 10 workers of City Hall and Perciles Dakay, owner of Dakay Construction and Development.
Also included in the charge sheet were 32 “John Does,” who are believed to be workers of the construction company who were hired to remove the fixtures of the office.
The charges filed against the former mayor were theft, malicious mischief, grave misconduct, grave neglect of duty, conduct unbecoming of a public official, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Osmeña lost to then Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella in the May’s elections.
Mejelito Cajes of the Building Maintenance Services acted as complainant.
In his complaint, Cajes said it was last June 28 or two days before the term of Osmeña ended when the Mayor’s Office on the eighth floor of the building was stripped bare.
The complainant said the respondents “willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously destroyed and demolished” the Mayor’s Office “by removing tiles cemented to the floor and walls, by removing pipes, the toilet, lavatory, and faucet; by removing ceiling installations, by pulling out cables and wires, and taking away the Mayor’s Seal and all other fixtures attached to the immovable property owned by the City Government of Cebu.”
The cause of damage amounted to P857,713.14, the complainant said.
Osmeña said there was nothing wrong when took some fixtures since he was the one who spent for the renovation of the office. (Calvin D. Cordova)
