Put Cagayan de Oro to rest

Egay Uy

I THANK somebody who must have been following my column intently to find matters to respond to or base his story from. At least, there is that one intent and avid reader. And that makes my day.

But saying that to feed on Arlene’s innocence or vulnerability is a reflection of what one has told me when I first started to write a column pro bono years ago that his reference in his columns to those who either spoke to him or sent him e-mails or notes were not all true.  Most if not some of them were (or maybe still are) either imaginary or spinned just to tickle the minds of his readers. Now, how do we call that?

I did not wish to respond to that irresponsible insinuation of deception because I did not want to drag my househelp further to anything that she might not understand at all.  Arlene is basically unlettered but she understands what she hears on radio and what she watches on television.

As I said, her mind has never been influenced by any of our discussions about current events because she even watches the news earlier than us each day through the television set we placed in the kitchen.  In fact I did not even see her shed tears until I was told about it.

The comments about my househelp are uncalled for and speaks lowly of how somebody regards people like her.  As I have written, we have treated Arlene and Roel like family, as we have always done with our previous household companions.

Insulting her of being used to provide a telenovela-like symphathy could only come from a #$#$% mind.

• •

Several interpretations have been advanced with respect to the temporary restraining order that the Court of Appeals Mindanao Station has issued in favor of Mayor Oca Moreno and Treasurer Glenn Banez, restraining the implementation of the Ombudsman decision.  Like a coin, there are two sides to the issue.

The stronger argument that the Moreno camp has is the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the Mayor Junjun Binay case where it said that the courts can restrain implementation of decisions of the Ombudsman and practically declaring as unconstitutional the restriction in Section 14 of the Ombudsman law.

On the other hand, the violet camp is saying that there is no more matter to restrain because the decision was already implemented and the vice mayor has already taken his oath of office as mayor.

I will not venture to discuss whose position is right.  But I will say that the Ombudsman decision resulted in a miscarriage of justice which resulted in a rather cruel and unusual punishment. What transpired at the Ombudsman was worse than a denial of due process.

I hope the motion for reconsideration filed by Mayor Oca and treasurer Glenn Banez will be acted upon with dispatch because it has been more than three days (the Ombudsman rules provide that motions for reconsideration have to be resolved with three days from filing) since its filing yet the Ombudsman has done nothing about it, contrary to its speed when it decided the main case.

A final determination of this controversy will put Cagayan de Oro to rest.

 (Egay Uy is a lawyer, city hall consultant, and the chairman of Task Force Hapsay Dalan.)