CASES ON PASSAGE OF 2023 BUDGET

THE Office of the Ombudsman has cleared with finality Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez and seven other city officials of criminal and administrative cases over the passage of the 2023 budget during a city council session on September 26, 2023, when it denied the motion for reconsideration of the complainants to its earlier order dismissing these cases.

The cases were already dismissed by the Ombudsman on January 4, 2025, citing an absence of evidence presented by the complainants, composed of four of the seven councilors who were the majority in the city council from July 2022 to July 2025.

These are: Librada Reyna, Marilou Fernandez, Alvin Coquia and Redford Erfe-Mejia.

The other respondents in these cases were Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and Councilors Michael Fernandez, Jeslito Seen, Dennis Canto, Marcelo Fernandez, and Joshua Bugayong, and City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo.

Appropriation Ordinance No. 2274-2023 was passed when three members of the majority bloc – then Councilors Celia Lim, Irene Lim-Acosta and Alfie Fernandez – were vacationing abroad and their four colleagues decided to join the session via Zoom, but eventually opted out.

In their motion, the complainants insisted that the Ombudsman has the authority to adjudicate the subject matter of the complaint, arguing that it does not pertain solely to the enactment and approval of Appropriations  Ordinance No. 2274-2023, but rather refers to respondents’ alleged unlawful manners of passing said ordinance, which does not necessitate a determination on the validity and invalidity of the budget ordinance.

The respondents filed a joint Comment/ Opposition on August 11, 2025, to the motion for reconsideration, contending that the manner by which an Appropriation Ordinance was passed cannot be questioned before the Ombudsman as this would constitute a collateral attack on an otherwise valid law, claiming that only the court has the power to invalidate a law or ordinance.

In its joint order, the Ombudsman stated that the motion for reconsideration of the complainants neither introduces a new argument nor newly discovered evidence “that would warrant a modification, much less a reversal of this Officer’s findings, nor establishes any error of law or  irregularities committed that are prejudicial to the interest of the movants.”

The joint order was signed on August 29, 2025 by Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer III Joyful Josette T. Kiamson and approved by Acting Ombudsman Dante F. Vargas. (Leonardo Micua)

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