Lapsed term saves CDO mayor from suspension over boxers’ facility

CDO Mayor Oscar Moreno. PHOTO FROM MORENO’S FACEBOOK PAGE

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Embattled Mayor Oscar Moreno heaved a sigh of relief following the Court of Appeals-Mindanao’s ruling overturning the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman who ordered him suspended for the release of funds aimed at enhancing the skills of the city’s aspiring young boxers.

The CA, however, denied his petition for writ of preliminary injunction on the same case.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ruled that Moreno, along with city budget officer Percy Salazar and city accountant Beda Joy Elot, should be suspended for three months without pay for the appropriation of P175,000 for the lease of a house that would serve as training facility for the boxing trainees without prior authorization from the City Council.

The penalty imposed on Moreno, the CA said in its decision, “is functus officio and may no longer be enforced given the expiration of his previous term of office.”

Functus officio refers to an officer or agency whose mandate has expired.

The Ombudsman’s decision was based on a complaint filed Barangay Puntod chair Marvin Beja against Moreno during his first term as mayor in 2013. Moreno is now on his second term.

But in its decision, the CA has affirmed the Ombudsman’s ruling that the lease contract Moreno entered into with the owner of the house arose from a project not specified in the appropriations ordinance, making it not as a subsisting obligation but a new obligation for the city government that needed legislative approval by the City Council.

Although Moreno was spared from the Ombudsman’s suspension order, the appellate court has found Salazar and Elot liable as they are appointed public officials.

In an interview, Moreno said Salazar and Elot could file their respective motions for reconsideration regarding the suspension order.

Meanwhile, Moreno welcomed the decision of the Ombudsman in recommending for the filing of charges at the Sandiganbayan in another case involving him and city treasurer Glenn Bañez over a tax settlement with Ajinomoto Philippines.

The case, filed by former Barangay Taglimao chairman William Guialani, stemmed from the accusation that Moreno and Bañez signed an agreement with Ajinomoto over its tax obligations without the approval from the City Council.

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

The Ombudsman went ahead in deciding his case arguing that it did not receive the mayor’s counter-affidavit, although Moreno insisted that he had indeed sent a copy.

But Moreno said he was confident that the Sandiganbayan “will hear that I was not afforded due process in the Ombudsman.”  SFM