Jed Mabilog’s co-accused in graft case to challenge Marcos clemency grant

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CEBU, Philippines – Former Iloilo City councilor Plaridel Nava II said that he will go to the Supreme Court to challenge the executive clemency given to former Iloilo City mayor Jed Mabilog, his co-accused in a towing contract case that got them both facing criminal charges in 2023. 

Nava, who has long-running feud with Mabilog, announced this on Monday, January 27, shortly after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. granted the former mayor’s bid for clemency on the administrative sanctions against him in relation to a graft case.

“I will file a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 [of the Rules of Court] for grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction against the Office of the President, against Bongbong Marcos, and Lucas Bersamin to challenge the pardon granted Mabilog,” the former councilor said in a livestreamed video.

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Mabilog in October 2017 for having pecuniary interest in a towing firm that the city government contracted. His dismissal — an administrative penalty — came with perpetual disqualification from office, which meant he could not run in any election.

The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal order in November 2017, and again in 2019, which Mabilog continued to appeal. The Supreme Court upheld the dismissal with finality later in 2019. Meanwhile, the Ombudsman filed criminal graft charges against Mabilog and Nava in relation to the towing contract before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan in 2023. 

When he returned from self-imposed exile in September 2024, Mabilog posted bail and applied for executive clemency to restore his “rights to vote and be voted upon,” which Marcos granted months later.

In his bid to challenge Mabilog’s executive clemency, Nava argued that the President’s power to grant a pardon in administrative cases does not include those handled by the Office of the Ombdusman.

The former councilor referred to the Supreme Court ruling on Rodolfo Llamas vs. Executive Secretary Oscar Orbos — the same case that the Office of the President used to justify that the President’s power to grant pardons extends to administrative cases.

“We wish to stress however that when we say the President can grant executive clemency in administrative cases, We refer only to all administrative cases in the Executive branch, not in the Judicial or Legislative branches of the government,” the Supreme Court wrote in its decision on the Llamas vs Orbos case.

In the case of Llamas vs. Orbos, Nava said, it was the Department of the Interior and Local Governance (DILG) that ordered the suspension and removal of the respondent and not the Ombudsman and that the High Court affirmed the pardon because the DILG was under the President’s authority.

“The Ombudsman is not part of the executive branch. The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent constitutional body exercising quasi-judicial functions. Thus, its decision cannot be disturbed by the executive branch by way of an executive clemency for lack of jurisdiction,” the former councilor said.

Wide discretionary power

On the contrary, Amando Virgil Ligutan, a high-profile lawyer and senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Law, told Rappler that the Supreme Court ruling on the Llamas vs. Orbos case settles the issue on the validity of the clemency granted to Mabilog.

“So long as there is already a final determination of administrative liability by the Ombudsman, the President’s grant of clemency to former Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog is legal. The fact that the decision is by the Ombudsman is a non-issue,” the lawyer said.

Under the 1987 Constitution, a pardon can only be granted after a conviction by final judgement. 

In Mabilog’s case, pending a court decision on his graft case, he has been determined administratively liable by the Ombudsman for his involvement in the towing deal.

“The grant of clemency is an executive function. The discretion by the President in this regard is wide. No one can question it, unless it is expressly prohibited by the Constitution. In Mabilog’s case, it’s not prohibited by the Constitution,” Ligutan added.

A longtime feud 

Nava and Mabilog have been political foes for some time.

In 2015, Nava filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Mabilog for allegedly owning 3L Towing Services. 

The city government at the time entered into an agreement with the firm which saw it earning 70% of the fines collected and 30% going to the local government.

Nava claimed that Mabilog instructed him to look for a “trustworthy person” to be a dummy owner of the towing firm. 

Then-Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales indicted both Mabilog and Nava as, according to her, “there was a meeting of the minds between them to do an illegal act and thus they must both suffer its consequences.”

Ahead of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2025 elections in October 2024, Mabilog’s supporters said he was going to run against Raisa Treñas-Chu, the daughter of incumbent Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, in the Iloilo mayoral race. Nava supports Treñas’ candidacy.

Mabilog, however, announced that he would not run for mayor. – Rappler.com