Moreno unfazed

By Nitz Arancon,
Correspondent

INCUMBENT and re-elected Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno will not be stepping down from office anytime soon even as the Ombudsman has rejected his motion for reconsideration in connection with the administrative case filed against him by a former village chair.

It is business as usual at the City Hall and Moreno even flew to Manila for a speaking engagement at the Asian Institute of Management.

However, his lawyer Dale Bryan Mordeno faced reporters at his office’s conference room on Tuesday to explain that the latest ruling of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will not remove the mayor from his elected position.

Mordeno also explained that the mayor is filing a motion of review to the reported Ombudsman denial of their Motion for Reconsideration in the Ajinomoto case where Moreno and acting city treasurer Glenn Banez were found liable for grave misconduct when they allegedly entered into a tax settlement agreement with the company, without authorization from the City Council.

In her Feb. 16 decision, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Moreno and City Treasurer Glenn Bañez, but Mordeno said the two officials can still perform their official respective functions since the ruling is not yet final.

“Dili man mahimong final ang decision, orders or judgment in any court, not only in the Ombudsman, until the period within which to appeal will lapse or expire. That is part of due process,” he told reporters in a press conference held at the mayor’s office Tuesday morning.

Mordeno, assured the public that there is no immediate effect of the Ombudsman’s denial as the mayor and Banez still have 15 days to file their appeal, in this case, in the form of Motion for Review, upon receipt of the denial. “Although the mayor has not yet received his copy, we have read the decision and we would immediately file our appeal when we receive our copy. We will no longer wait for the 15-day deadline,” Mordeno explained.

“We welcome the denial of the motion of reconsideration so that we can correct the errors in facts in the Ombudsman decision at the Court of Appeals,” said Mordeno, who acknowledged the denial of the Ombudsman of Moreno’s motion for reconsideration but said the mayor has yet to receive his copy of the document. Mordeno assured the people of Cagayan de Oro especially those who “overwhelmingly voted” for Moreno in the last election that the mayor will remain in office. Moreno won with 97,033 votes over former mayor Dongkoy Emano who got 80,876 and outgoing second district congressman Rufus Rodriguez with 61,804 votes. “The mandate given by the people to Mayor Moreno to serve a second term cannot be wasted. It in effect, the re-election condoned whatever actions of the mayor,” said the mayor’s lawyer.

“The mayor would ensure that there will be no disruption of services at City Hall, unlike the impasse last October which hampered public service,”Mordeno said.

“Although the Supreme Court in the Binay vs the Ombudsman ruling in October last year said it is abandoning the Aguinaldo Doctrine, its effect is prospective not retroactive. Moreno was accused of a wrongdoing in an administrative case long before the high court said it will no longer apply the condonation doctrine,” Moreno’s lawyer explained.

The Ombudsman said in its seven-page denial of Moreno’s and Banez’s motion for reconsideration that Moreno failed to present the original of his counter-affidavit which he claimed to have filed on time with the Ombudsman. Moreno assailed that his right to due process was violated in the Ombudsman decision as his counter-affidavit was not considered even if he filed it on time during the pendency of the case. The Ombudsman acknowledged in its original ruling that the counter-affidavit of the mayor was not in the case file.