President Benigno Aquino III has dismissed Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez III over handling of the case against hostage-taker former Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, a statement from the Executive Secretary said Friday.
The decision came from a recommendation of Palace lawyers who reviewed the findings of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee(IIRC), the statement said.
The government official noted that Gonzales' dismissal is due to his “gross neglect of duty and gross misconduct" in handling the dismissal complaint against Mendoza.
This decision is a a direct action against an official in connection with the August 23 hostage-taking following the review of the IIRC report by the Palace legal team headed by Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., the statement said.
The decision was issued on March 31, 2011.
"This decision reflects this Administration’s commitment to hold those responsible for the hostage-taking incident accountable,” Ochoa said.
"Those of us who serve government must be cognizant of the fact that people are affected by our failure to fulfill our responsibilities. In this case, lives were not only affected, they were lost," Ochoa added.
The 15-page decision indicated that it found an "inordinate and unjustified delay in the resolution of the motion for reconsideration timely filed by Mendoza on his dismissal from police service – a clear neglect of performance of official duty."
It added that the delay in the resolution of Mendoza's appeal that spanned nine months constituted "a flagrant disregard" of the Office of the Ombudsman’s Rules and Procedure, which provide that a motion for reconsideration must be acted upon within five days from the submission of the documents.
The executive secretary stressed that there was substantial evidence to prove that Gonzalez committed gross misconduct for showing undue interest in taking over the administrative case filed against Mendoza, which was then pending investigation with the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service.
The report noted that the delay in the resolution of Mendoza’s appeal was “all the more unjustified” since no opposition was ever filed against the former Manila police officer’s motion for reconsideration.
"The circumstances surrounding the charges of gross neglect of duty and gross misconduct lent credence to Mendoza’s accusation during the hostage-taking incident that Gonzalez was extorting P150,000 from him in exchange for a favorable decision, Ochoa said.
The executive secretary said Gonzalez had challenged the authority of the President to charge him administratively, saying that it had no judicial or quasi-judicial jurisdiction over him.
The Executive Secretary, however, explained that both transgressions – gross neglect of duty and gross misconduct – amounted to arbitrary and tyrannical exercise of authority and betrayal of public trust, which are grounds for the dismissal of Gonzalez from service by the President.
The official explained that under the Constitution and Republic Act No. 6670, or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, the President has the power to discipline Gonzalez “even to the extent of meting out the supreme administrative penalty of dismissal.”
