By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
CITY accountant Beda Joy Elot and city budget officer Percy Salazar have appealed the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that upheld the order of the Office of the Ombudsman to have them suspended for three months for simple misconduct.
The partial motion for reconsideration was filed on Friday by lawyer Dale Bryan Mordeno on behalf of Elot and Salazar. A copy of the motion was shown to this paper yesterday.
Mordeno appealed to the appellate court to reconsider its Oct. 6 decision to have Elot and Salazar suspended in connection with city hall’s lease of a house in Macasandig for young boxers receiving training aid from the local government.
The same CA decision spared Mayor Oscar Moreno from the suspension order but ordered him fined. The fine is equivalent to his salary for three months.
In the 10-page motion, Mordeno asked the CA to partially reconsider its Oct. 6 ruling, saying that the “imposition of the penalty of three months suspension… is harsh and excessive.”
The penalty, he said, can “be vacated or at the very least, mitigated.”
Mordeno said that while Elot and Salazar were not challenging the CA decision, he said his clients wanted to bring to the appellate court some points and reasons that were not thoroughly discussed in their petition. He said these “were probably skirted as inconsequential” by the CA.
Mordeno said the CA should consider that Elot and Salazar were not signatories in the lease contract between Mayor Moreno and former Misamis Oriental board member Jimmy Caiña, owner of the Macasandig house.
“Their respective participation were only limited to obligate and disbursing the fund for the intended purpose. Thus, they should not be held equally liable for simple misconduct,” Mordeno pointed out.
The city officials were charged before the ombudsman by Puntod barangay chairman Marvin Beja who alleged that Moreno, Elot and Salazar conspired to lease Caiña’s house for the training of boxers without the approval of the city council.
The ombudsman’s decision prompted Moreno, Elot and Salazar to file a petition for certiorari with application for issuance of temporary restraining order and/or status quo ante and writ of preliminary injunction against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Beja.
But this Oct. 6, the CA ruled against Moreno’s suspension, citing his reelection in May. The CA said the suspension order “may no longer be enforced given the expiration of his (Moreno’s) previous term of office.”
The CA however did not spare Elot and Salazar and ordered their suspension for three months.
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