By Nora Sorino
and Sita Asequia
of GSD-Iligan bureau
ILIGAN City–The Court of Appeals has granted Mayor Celso Regencia a writ of preliminary injunction, preventing the implementation of the ombudsman’s decision to dismiss and perpetually disqualify him from holding public office for grave misconduct.
Jose Pantoja, city hall spokesman, said Regencia received the appellate court’s July 3 decision on Friday. The ruling was signed by CA Associate Justices Ruben Reynaldo Roxas, Edgardo Carmello and Luis Acosta
The writ of injunction was issued in connection with the case filed by former vice mayor Ruderic Marzo who complained that Regencia continued to perform mayoral functions in 2016 while he was under detention due to murder and frustrated murder cases.
Regencia was released from detention at the city jail in January.
The cases related to the ambush of the then congressman Vicente Belmonte and his group near the Laguindingan airport in Misamis Oriental, were subsequently dismissed by the Department of Justice.
The CA, in its ruling, stated that the Office of the Ombudsman “might have erred in issuing such decision” and should have only subjected Regencia to a reprimand.
The appellate court directed Marzo,the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the ombudsman to submit their respective memoranda even as it ordered “to preserve the status quo ante.”
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