MISAMIS Oriental board member President Elipe could now take a sigh of relief after the Office of the Ombudsman junked the nepotism and malversation cases filed against him as the appointed general manager of the Misamis Oriental Integrated Sports Complex (MOISC).
In a six-page joint resolution issued on July 27, 2018, the Ombudsman ruled that there is no sufficient evidence to hold Elipe and other accused, Governor Yevgeny Emano, criminally and administratively liable for the said charges.
Emano and Elipe just received the copy about a month ago.
The Ombudsman is convinced that the appointment of Elipe as general manager of the MOISC in Cagayan de Oro City is not unlawful because it is a private entity based on the SSS registration and not run by the Provincial Government.
"The SSS registration of the Integrated Sports Foundation Inc. and the fact that it remits its employees' premium contributions to the SSS, lean toward the inference that it is a private entity," part of the resolution reads.
"In fine, given the insufficiency of evidence against respondents, none of the present charges against them, criminal or administrative, could stand. Wherefore, the cases are dismissed,” it added.
The Ombudsman furthered that MOISC is not getting a chunk of the provincial budget and there is no enough proof to support allegations that employees from the province were assigned at the sports center.
"We are happy that the graft and nepotism cases were dismissed kay klaro man nga political harassment ni,” Elipe said.
"Klaro man nga ang operations sa sports center is private and no single centavo was transferred from capitol to the sports center,” he added.
Elipe and Emano's legal counsel lawyer Melchor Cubillo said the complainant, Ernesto Molina, has failed to file a motion for reconsideration after the ombudsman issued the resolution, which would supposedly mean the case has already been terminated.
"Wala mi nadawat copy of the motion nila so we supposed terminated na ang kaso and the ombudsman has already ruled the merits of the case,” Cubillo said.
For his part, Emano said they were contemplating on filing a case against the complainant.
"Na-istoryahan namo ni Prexy and we are now thinking of filing a case against molina for allegedly falsifying documents and politically harassing us,” Emano said.
The governor maintained that the "unfounded" and "baseless" cases filed against them were all part of political harassment to destroy their credibility and integrity.
"Not only political, it was harassment sa camp ni Moreno sa iyang paningkamot nga malinla ang katawhan nga dili lang siya ang naay kaso,” he added.
Elipe is vying for the vice-gubernatorial seat as running mate of Emano who is seeking his third and last term as governor in the upcoming May polls.