Oca plans to turn tables on ombud

By SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
Correspondent

MAYOR Oscar Moreno has welcomed his indictment as an opportunity for him to challenge the Office of the Ombudsman’s findings, and order to boot him out from city hall and disqualify him from holding public office for life in connection with the 2013 tax settlement between city hall and Ajinomoto Philippines.

Moreno said he found relief in Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales’s move to bring him and city treasurer Glenn Bañez to the Sandiganbayan for graft.

He said he was confident that a trial would give him the chance to present witnesses and turn the tables on the Office on the Ombudsman over its ruling to dismiss him as mayor and disqualify him from the government.

Moreno said the anti-graft court would afford him the opportunity to be heard, something which he said the ombudsman failed to do when it ruled on the graft case without going over his counter-affidavit.

He said the ombudsman admitted in its ruling that it missed out on his counter-affidavit.

“Sala ko ba diay nga wa nila nakita ang akong affidavit nga nagpasa man ko?” Moreno asked rhetorically.

He said it is very essential for the accused to be heard but with his missing affidavit, he emphasized that it was clear that the ombudsman deprived him of his right to be heard.

With his indictment, Moreno said, “Makita ug masabtan sa Sandiganbayan nga wala ko nakahibalo ana nga agreement.”

“I welcome the filing at the Sandiganbayan. I now have a tribunal that will listen,” Moreno told radio station DxIM in a separate interview.

Moreno told a news conference on Friday that he did not want to pick a fight with the ombudsman but the case with the Sandiganbayan would help him clear his name.

The mayor has maintained that he was unaware of the agreement between Bañez and Ajinomoto, explaining that the act was the prerogative of the city treasurer.

The agreement was a result of an arbitration resulting from a case filed by Ajinomoto, questioning Bañez’s tax assessment of P2.9 million. The company and Bañez then agreed on a P300-thousand tax.

Moreno’s lawyer, Bryan Dale Mordeno, said he was preparing to file a motion for the Sandiganbayan to review the ombudsman’s resolution.

In a statement, the City Information Office said the ombudsman  acknowledged in its resolution that it came up with the decision against Moreno without considering the official’s counter-affidavit. Moreno maintained that he filed his counter affidavit, and pointed this out in his motion for reconsideration. He also attached a photocopy of the document. The Ombudsman however dismissed the motion for reconsideration because Moreno did not attach the original copy.

Moreno said the ombudsman could have asked him to produce or show the original copy of the document which he said he is “guarding with his life.”

“As a rule, if the accused is not afforded due process, the tribunal handling the case divests itself of jurisdiction over the case. I am confident the Sandiganbayan will hear that I was not afforded due process in the ombudsman,” he said.

In the meantime, Moreno said, it’s business as usual at city hall, and he would not be distracted by the cases filed against him.

“We continue to build classrooms, road concreting, upgrade the city hospital and rural health centers, and improve principle-based partnership with the city council. We make sure that government services are delivered,” the CIO quoted Moreno as saying.

He said the first 100 days of his second office term as mayor had bumps because of legal issues but overall, “it has been business as usual at city hall.”