No lawyer to assist him in questioning his dismissal

MORENO

ALOGUINSAN Mayor Augustos Caesar Moreno has not yet filed a motion for reconsideration on the dismissal order of the Office of the Ombudsman.

He said he is still looking for a lawyer to assist him in availing of the legal remedies available to him. In a phone interview with Cebu Daily News, Moreno said he was still looking for a lawyer whose services he could afford, saying lawyers’ fees are usually very high. “Wala pa, nangita pa mi kay mahal man kaayo mga abogado,” he said. “Nangita mi ug barato nga abogado. Wala pa (date) kay mahal-mahal man ang mga lawyers.”

(Not yet, I am still looking for a lawyer because a lawyer’s services are very expensive.)

Moreno said he is looking for a new lawyer as his previous legal counsel was no longer willing to represent him. “Mahal na man sila,” he said. “Di na man sila ganahan namo muda pa kay wa pa mi kabayad kaayo.” (They don’t want to represent us because we haven’t fully paid them yet.)

Endorse

Meanwhile, lawyer Corazon Naraja of the Ombudsman-Visayas explained that it is the Ombudsman’s central office in Manila that will endorse the order of dismissal to the Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

She said the Visayas office will only be furnished a copy of the resolution and decision, which they have already received.

DILG Regional Director Rene Burdeos, in a text message to Cebu Daily News, said they still have not yet received a copy of the decision dismissing Moreno from service.

Moreno, the incumbent mayor of Aloguinsan, was ordered dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman, along with his wife, Cynthia, who also served as town mayor, and several municipal employees, who were members of the Bids and Awards Committee in 2010, for authorizing the purchase of food on several occasions from a bakeshop owned by the mayor’s wife.

The anti-graft office found the Morenos as well as BAC members Pepito Maguilimotan, Nonela Villegas, Marilyn Flordeliza, Gertrudes Ababon and Evangeline Manigos guilty of grave misconduct for approving 28 purchases of food in 2010 amounting to nearly P300,000 from a bakery owned by Cynthia.

Cynthia was the mayor for the first half of 2010 before she relinquished the seat to her husband, the then incoming mayor.

At present, Moreno still sits as mayor pending the implementation of dismissal order from the Office of the Ombudsman.

Once implemented, Vice Mayor Cesare Ignatius “Ig-ig” Moreno, 32, the mayor’s oldest child, will take over his post.