MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman issued a show cause order for former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia.and Local Government Undersecretary Rolando Puno.
In a show cause order dated May 19, a copy of which was given to the media on Thursday, the Ombudsman gave Garcia five days “from receipt hereof why you should not be cited for indirect contempt for continuously defying the 23 April 2025 Order of the Ombudsman preventively suspending you from office during the period of the administrative adjudication in the above-captioned case but not to exceed six (6) months.”
The Ombudsman said records showed that she received a copy of the preventive suspension order on April 29 “and despite the implementation thereof by this Office and its immediately executory nature, you have publicly avowed not to abide by the Order on preventive suspension.”
Its April 25 order was for her preventive suspension pending resolution of an administrative complaint against her but not exceeding six months.
Garcia had said that she decided, upon the advice of her lawyer, “to write a clarificatory query to” Secretary Jonvic Remulla of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
She had said that “pending resolution of my query, I have decided to stay put in office and continue to serve as the governor of this great province of ours.”
She had said that “I will continue to serve the Cebuanos in the best possible way that I can within the bounds of law.”
Also, the Ombudsman issued a show cause order for Puno dated May 19 and a copy of which was given to the media on Thursday.
In it, the Ombudsman ordered him to show cause within five days “from receipt hereof” why he “should not be cited for indirect contempt for” allegedly “tolerating or consenting to” alleged “acts of defiance of respondent Garcia to the lawful Order of preventive suspension issued against her in the above entitled case, a copy of which was furnished to the DILG on 29 April 2025”.
According to the show cause order, reports showed that Puno, in a press conference on May 9, said that the DILG would not act on the preventive suspension order “because you are still awaiting the response of the Commission on Elections on your query as to the need to secure the Commission’s approval for the suspension of elected officials during the campaign period …”
