CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno questioned the ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman that said Misamis Oriental Integrated Sports Complex (MOISC) is a private entity.
The Office of the Ombudsman last week dropped the nepotism and malversation charges against Misamis Oriental Board Member President Elipe and Governor Yevgeny Emano, citing insufficient evidence. It adds, that the appointment of Elipe as general manager of the MOISC in Cagayan de Oro City is lawful because it is a private entity based on the SSS registration and not run by the provincial government.
But Moreno said the ruling is difficult to understand, maintaining that MOISC is not a private entity.
“How can the sports center be a private entity, under what definition would it fall that the sports center is privately-owned?” Moreno said.
“It is unimaginable, and I don’t know how the Ombudsman has come up with that imagination,” he added.
Moreno pointed out that the land where the MOISC stands is owned by the government, adding that “it is elementary in land ownership that the owner of the land is also the owner of all the improvements thereon”.
He said the sports center is also not a corporation and therefore has no separate personality.
Emano laughed off Moreno’s reaction, being “too smart” than the Ombudsman.
“Mas bright pa siya sa (he’s smarter than the) Ombudsman,” Emano said.
The Ombudsman last week also cited 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.