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Egay Uy .

THE Office of the Ombudsman, the prosecutor of government employees who violate the law, has recently dismissed the infamous Ajinomoto case against respondents Mayor Oscar S. Moreno and Dr. Glenn Banez.  In an Order dated Jan. 22, 2019, but received by the respondents only recently, the Ombudsman in Quezon City said, “The findings of probable cause are dismissed against Oscar S. Moreno and Glenn C. Bañez.”

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This case is one of the many that were filed by the political persecutors of Mayor Moreno. If the Rules of Court have its modes of discovery, politicians have their modes of harassment.

In resolving the case in favor of Mayor Moreno, the Ombudsman cited Supreme Court rulings which say that only contracts that bind local government units to new obligations require prior authority from the Sanggunian concerned.

The Ombudsman said, “It would seem that the Settlement Agreement was the result of a compromise that transpired between the City Government of Cagayan de Oro City and Ajinomoto.  “x x x Following the path of the documents and processes, it is undeniable that the source of the obligation of the Agreement was the tax deficiency assessment levied by the City Government against Ajinomoto.”

“The obligation contained therein was not a new obligation.  It therefore did not need authority from the Sanggunian before it can be entered into.  It was an old obligation that had an outstanding issue and continued to be the bone of contention between the two parties.”

Because of the court-approved Settlement Agreement, the Ombudsman said, “it is unforgiving to question the judicial process and the wisdom of the court on a proceeding which it has full competence and jurisdiction.  The (reconsidered OMB) Resolution and Joint Order’s determination and requirement that Treasurer Banez’s entry into the settlement agreement necessitated the authority of Sanggunian is a question of the court’s jurisdiction (such that) the resolution to file criminal Informations against respondents based on actions that were committed under the RTC’s supervision and control may be interpreted as collateral attacks to the competence of the judicial tribunal.”

Looking at the circumstances with unbiased mind and eyes, one can readily see that the City Government of Cagayan de Oro even earned a bonus of P300,000 as a result of the compromise settlement, the subject matter of the case. What was lost was a result of a wrongful classification by the previous administration of monosodium glutamate as essential instead of non-essential which could have raised the tax on the commodity.  What the Moreno administration did was to correct the wrong.

The rationale advanced by the Ombudsman in dismissing the case against Mayor Moreno and Dr. Banez is but an indication that the case should never have been.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)

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