MANILA – The Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal order – for unexplained wealth – by the Office of the Ombudsman against Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog.
A 4-page resolution by the CA’s Special First Division threw out Mabilog’s petition for lack of merit.
The CA also did not heed Mabilog’s prayer for a temporary restraining order to stop his dismissal.
The CA stressed that Mabilog had filed the wrong appeal or petition. The mayor had used Rule 65 of the Rules of Court in questioning the ruling of a lower court and the government’s actions before the Supreme Court, instead of Rule 43 for the petition questioning the Ombudsman’s decision.
“Mabilog’s case, involving as it does an administrative charge resulting in his dismissal from service, does not fall under any of the foregoing circumstance. As the current petition for certiorari is concededly an erroneous mode of review, its dismissal is in order,” said the appellate court.
Mabilog was removed from office after being adjudged guilty by the Ombudsman of serious dishonesty – for failing to explain the source of his wealth from 2012 until 2013.
The city mayor had been on President Rodrigo Duterte’s cross-hairs for a long time, mainly because of his alleged links to narcotics syndicates. Mabilog had repeatedly denied this, and he and his family lay low, on fears of physical harm, after two other mayors publicly denounced by the President as narco-politicians – Ozamiz city’s Reynaldo Parojinog and Albuera town’s Rolando Espinosa Sr. – were gunned down.