COPIES of the Ombudsman order dismissing Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno from service may have been posted at the Legislative Building early yesterday evening but as far as the mayor’s legal team is concerned, Moreno is still the city mayor.
“He remains the mayor of the city because of the lack of service upon his person of the order,” lawyer Bryan Dale Mordeno, head of Moreno’s team of lawyers, said.
“There was no personal service made on him because the DILG personnel who served the order from the Ombudsman were not able to enter the premises of the Executive Building,” Mordeno said.
Some 500 Moreno supporters had massed in front of the City Hall in anticipation of the serving of the dismissal order yesterday afternoon.
The Executive Building’s entrances and exits were also padlocked by supporters from the inside, effectively barring people from gaining access to the Mayor’s Office at the second floor of the building.
Mordeno refused to expound but said the inability of the DILG representatives to serve Moreno the order will be the subject of a supplemental motion that they intend to file today at the Court of Appeals (CA).
Mordeno said they intend to pursue their petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the CA.
When asked if the subject of the TRO has become moot and academic considering that copies of the order had been posted at the City Hall, Mordeno said they intend to argue otherwise.
“That will be the subject of another motion that we will be filing tomorrow at the CA in supplement to our prayer for the issuance of a TRO,” he said.
Mordeno said Moreno also intends to occupy the Executive Building until such time that he will be able to get a TRO from the CA.
Mordeno said they were unable to secure speedy relief from the CA following the inhibition of Associate Justice Edgardo Lloren from the case. Associate Justice Romulo Borja is reportedly out of town.
“We cannot understand why they kept on inhibiting themselves and for that reason the mayor was denied justice by the CA,” Mordeno said.
“Until we are heard we will not leave the Executive Building otherwise there will result a miscarriage of justice,” he said.