Taguig City mayor Lani Cayetano padlocked the session hall, preventing city councilors from holding regular sessions in 2010, now the Office of the Ombudsman has indicted the mayor on Thursday.
The ombudsman also charged officer in charge City Administrator Jose Montales for violation of Article 143 of the revised Penal Code which penalizes persons who, by force or fraud, prevent or tend to prevent the meetings of local legislative bodies.
The case rooted from the eviction of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) or city council from its former venue and its transfer to a small room in the city auditorium in August 2010.
According to SP members, padlocking of the session hall was an act of hostility, premeditated and executed with undue haste and no prior consultation nor notice.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales trashed respondents’ explanation that the move was part of the city’s re-engineering and re-organizational plan, citing that there was no plan or a semblance of a project study that would validate the immediate change in the traditional city hall offices.
H/T: philstar.com; photo from Rappler.
