FORMER Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Z. Ouano “may still run” for public office, as the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas’ decision last year is not yet final, said his legal counsel Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu.

She said Ouano still has a pending motion for reconsideration before the anti-graft office, which has yet to act on it.

“They may (still) appeal the ombudsman decision,” she said.

Sen. Manuel Villar, who is running for president in the May 10, 2010 elections, already hinted of his support for the former mayor.

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Ouano last Friday posted P30,000 bail after being charged with violating Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, at the Sandiganbayan.

He was linked to the Asean decorative lamppost scandal, which recently saw the issuance of warrants of arrest against 14 persons impleaded in one of five cases.

Dalawampu said the ombudsman’s disqualification order is anchored on the administrative case, which is based on the anti-graft case filed at the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division.

Withdrawn

The investigators, she said, withdrew the case.

In August last year, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, headed by Assistant Ombudsman Robert Kallos, withdrew the information against Ouano and his co-accused for “reinvestigation.”

Dalawampu said the investigators will include the Commission on Audit (COA) report on the lampposts to strengthen the case. She said the COA did not even mention Ouano’s name.

Ouano is still unclear if he will run for mayor or for sixth district representative.

If he runs for Congress, he would be up against businessman Glen Soco; Rene Espina Jr., son of former Cebu governor Espina Sr.; former Provincial Board (PB) member Luigi Quisumbing; PB Member Victor Maambong; and Edmund Sanchez, Mayor Jonas Cortes’s consultant.

Sanchez will run under the Liberal Party of presidential aspirant Benigno Aquino III.

Cortes’s adviser Francisco Amit said the mayor would be supporting presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro and “vice-versa.”

But incumbent Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu Province, 6th district), who is running against Cortes in the 2010 elections, also claimed Teodoro’s support, being a Lakas-Kampi official in Cebu.

Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, who has not formally announced whether he will seek reelection or run for Congress, said their group will likewise make a formal announcement soon.

Candidates have Nov. 20 up to midnight of Nov. 30 to file their certificates of candidacy. (OCP)