Moreno's graft cases to be heard in Manila

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered the transfer of City Mayor Oscar Moreno’s cases from the CA-Mindanao Station to the Appellate Court’s Manila Station.

A statement from the CA-Mindanao said, that last November 28, the Supreme Court en banc, acting on the recommendation of CA Acting Presiding Justice Remedios Salazar-Fernando, has ordered the re-raffle of all 0-[“Moreno cases” involving the mayor’s administrative disciplinary cases when he was still governor of Misamis Oriental.

Fernando’s move came after CA-Mindanao Executive Justice Romulo Borja also wrote a letter to CA-Manila on October 19 this year, urging the transfer.

Borja raised concerns about its Station’s chronic difficulty in composing divisions to act on sensitive cases, due to the number of refusals by Justices in the Station and the frequent court-wide reorganizations.

All the Justices of the CA-Mindanao were unanimous in

endorsing the plan to transfer the Moreno cases to Manila, and that records of the cases are now being shipped to the Manila Station.

The cases are docketed before the CAMindanao as: CA-G.R. SP No. 08156-MIN, CA-G.R. SP No. 08165-MIN, CA-G.R. SP No. 08308-MIN, CA-G.R. SP No. 08321-MIN, and CA-G.R. SP No. 08363-MIN.

The man behind Moreno’s cases, Antonio Nuñez, has filed a total of 48 cases against the mayor, but he said the Office of the Ombudsman had so far issued decisions to 36 cases.

“We welcome this move, now we are more confident that our cases will prosper given the CA-Manila will now handle the cases. Because as we have witnessed over time, we can say that the CA here is biased, as it always issue temporary restraining orders in favor of Moreno,” he said.

“In Manila, at least we know that the Justices who will handle the cases are not in any way, connected to Moreno. This is God answering our prayers,” he further said.

Moreno has been hit by a slew of charges relating to the alleged irregularities in the rental of equipment for road project back when Moreno was still governor of Misamis Oriental.

He was dismissed by the Ombudsman several times for the graft charges, but the CA, through Moreno’s appeals, managed to give Moreno relief issuing temporary restraining orders.

Moreno’s critics had since then hit the CA-Cagayan de Oro Station for being biased, saying the TROs they issued were “bought”.

However, in a September decision, the Supreme Court dismissed these allegations, citing “lack of merit”.

Meanwhile, the Moreno camp has yet to issue their reaction on the transfer of the mayor’s cases as of this writing.