A POLITICAL ally of former Cagayan de Oro City councilor President Elipe Thursday, July 26, 2018, said there is still a huge chance that Elipe's conviction will be reversed even as he said that this remains a long legal battle.
Opposition councilor Leon Gan said there are factual issues on the decision that the Sandiganbayan needs to check to perhaps reconsider its earlier ruling.
However, Gan declined to elaborate the details saying these might be manifested in Elipe's motion for reconsideration (MR).
“If the court will consider the MR probably it will be reversed,” the councilor said, adding that the chance is more than 50 percent.
Elipe and his sister, Pristine Quizon, were sentenced to a total of 18 years after they were convicted for graft and falsification of public document charges.
Their penalty includes barring them from holding any public office and to pay a fine of P5,000 for the falsification.
Should the anti-graft court deny the motion for reconsideration, Gan said the next legal remedy is to appeal the Sandiganbayan decision to the Supreme Court.
“Nakurat gyud ko sa decision pero nakita nako nga duna pay chance (I was shocked but when I go over the decision I found out that there is still a chance). This is still a long legal battle,” he said.
The local official said the court cannot issue yet an arrest warrant against Elipe until the decision reaches finality.
Gan also believed that this happened because of politics and these cases were made to silence Elipe as he was known to be vocal and critical to Mayor Oscar Moreno's administration.
Elipe was the then chair of city council's committee on finance and was very scrupulous in looking into the affairs of the city government, especially involving money of the people.
Gan said if the case was not driven by politics, it could have been resolved in the level of the city council who has rules and procedures on administrative remedies and doctrine of primary jurisdiction which involved employees of the city government.
“If we follow the procedure, gi-resolve unta na sa (it was supposedly resolved in the) city government before filing it to the ombudsman kay naa man tay process diha (because we have process for that). But we were not surprise ngano nidiretso ni sa (why it was filed directly to the) Ombudsman,” Gan said.