You cannot put a good man down

By TEDDY SABUGA-A
Team OKKA . 

“Mayor Oca Moreno of Cagayan de Oro seems to be battling political harassment forever. Looking at the mayor, we can surmise that his woes seem to make him stronger. His latest winning program, ‘Ending Political Bondage in Resettlement Areas by Providing Security of Tenure,’ freed informal settlers from political patronage. Land tenure of informal settlers used to be attached to the term of the Office of the Mayor. — Milwida M. Guevarra of Synergeia Foundation, Manila Bulletin, Oct. 16, 2018

MAYOR Oscar S. Moreno has the unenviable position of orchestrating the rebuilding of a city from over decades of misgovernance and disaster. More than that, he had been shackled by the wicked tentacles ‘trapo’ politics at its most vile form.

Incapable of respecting the will of the electorate — not once but twice — Mayor Moreno’s political nemesis made sure his stay at the City Hall would be inconvenient, even hellish. But instead, for every trumped-up accusation against the mayor, he comes out stronger.

Supporters made of lesser materials, melted, twited and jump, thinking Mayor Moreno’s ship was sinking. They flaundered with the delude of votes for the mayor who got reelected in 2016.

Now, it is another discordant refrain.

The people love the mayor because of his leadership that mobilized the entire city hall bureaucracy and city stakeholders to provide quality public services they have not experienced before. Experience is the better teacher.

The people are discerning enough to feel their hard earned taxes go to where it should, no matter how fake, trumped up, and baseless the accusations against him.

A careful scrutiny of cases filed against  him would reveal that no public funds were lost nor went to his pocket. None in the Ajinomoto case, none in the equipment rental case, none in the Philhealth indigency program.

In fact, the Commission on Audit in Region 10 Office said in the equipment rental transaction: “It is incontrovertible that services have been rendered, services of equipment not found exceeding the prevailing rental rules, benefits enjoyed by the public, and the accomplishments duly recognized and cited.”

“Ayaw yata ng Ombudsman ng mabait at masipag,” said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello when the equipment rental cases broke out in 2016.

While the Ombudsman has been bestowed enormous powers by the Constitution, it is not infallible. The decision of the Court of Appeals in the Ajinomoto case was instructive.

Good enough, the Supreme Court decided in one of the Binay cases that the decisions of the Ombudsman can be reviewed by the appellate court. This decision obviously is to put in check the Ombudsman’s vast powers so that it would not be used as political tool by losing politicians and other losers.

Like the Ajinomoto case, this case now involving the rental of heavy equipment for road projects when he was still governor of Misamis Oriental involved procedural matters. It has never been about public funds misspent or pocketed.

The cases are unlike the Scantel/Telepono sa Barangay case where the COA, in a final ruling, disallowed the spending of P31 million for a supposed barangay telephone project. The officials, led by former mayor Dongkoy Emano were ordered to return the money because of the ghost project. Queer enough, no criminal indictment has been pursued in this case.

True enough, the mayor has gotten out stronger with the persecution he has been unjustly pushed into. Truly, you cannot put a good man down.

(Teddy Sabuga-a is the Cagayan de Oro city administrator.)