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By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

EMBATTLED Mayor Oscar Moreno ran out of time at the Court of Appeals (CA) on Thursday after three associate justices, one after the other, inhibited from tackling his request for a stay on his dismissal order from the Office of the Ombudsman. He needed that ruling on Thursday to prevent newly installed Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas from being recognized by the interior department.

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One of the urgent motions Moreno sought from the CA was a status quo ante which, in law, refers to the pior status that is being sought to be maintained.

After a Hail Mary pass yesterday afternoon, Associate Justices Edgardo Camello, Henri Jean Paul Inting, and Pablito Perez granted Moreno’s urgent petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO).

Incidentally, Camello and Perez were among the three associate justices who reportedly inhibited on Thursday.

Moreno said he did not take Thursday’s decision of the magistrates against them.

“The inhibitions of Associate Justices Edgardo Camello, Jose Perez, and Edgardo Lloren were directed by the decency of the magistrates,” Moreno said on Thursday night. “It is just ironic that decency became a handicap to me, and because of decency on the part of the magistrates, technicalities stymied the rendition of justice that is owed to me and the people of Cagayan de Oro.”

According to the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals, Rule 3, Section 7, the raffle of cases are conducted daily at 10:30 am. The CA can only conduct a maximum of three raffles a day because it cannot conduct a raffle after regular office hours.

“When Justice Perez inhibited early in the evening (Thursday), there was no more chance for another Justice taking his place [that day],” he said.

Moreno lamented that the Office of the Ombudsman was strict with the 10 days it gave to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to serve the order but was lax with the number of days it is mandated to act on his motion for reconsideration.

He said he was denied due process when the ombudsman failed to act on his motion for reconsideration within the prescribed period. According to the rules, the respondent has five days to respond and the Ombudsman is mandated to act on the motion submitted within three days.

“I was here the whole time but there was no attempt to serve the order to me. I was told that at about 6 pm (Thursday night), DILG posted the order in the Legislative Buiding,” said Moreno.

Still, Moreno said he hoped that the ombudsman would “rectify the mistake.”

“I know I will prevail,” he said.

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Before joining the Gold Star Daily, Cong worked as the deputy director of the multimedia desk of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), and before that he served as a writing fellow of Vera Files. Under the pen name "Cong," Leonardo Vicente B. Corrales has worked as a journalist since 2008.Corrales has published news, in-depth, investigative and feature articles on agrarian reform, peace and dialogue initiatives, climate justice, and socio-economics in local and international news organizations, which which includes among others: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Business World, MindaNews, Interaksyon.com, Agence France-Presse, Xinhua News Wires, Thomson-Reuters News Wires, UCANews.com, and Pecojon-PH.He is currently the Editor in Chief of this paper.