SOCIAL media was bombarded last week with posts of Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno facing another suspension order from Sandiganbayan, but Moreno’s camp called it “fake news.”
However, it turned out to be a motion filed by one of Moreno’s co-accused, engineer Rolando Pacuribot, in a graft and corruption case filed there, which was denied by the court.
City Information Officer Maricel Casiño-Rivera, issued a statement, accusing mayoralty candidate Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña’s camp behind the posts.
“In his desperation, Pompee’s camp is gearing up its fake news machinery. They will fail. There is no truth to the info spread by CDO Social Weather Facebook page that the Sandiganbayan issued a preventive suspension order vs Mayor Moreno,” she said.
“We deplore disinformation. Fake news and its purveyors have no place in democratic elections,” the statement adds.
La Viña, in an interview last week, hinted that a suspension order will be issued anytime against Moreno.
“Under the law, na-arraign naman siya. Kadtong April 2, hibaw-an nako, he was given 8 or 10 days to reply, tawag ana show-cause order, why he shouldn’t be suspended. April 10 man ang deadline siguro, ang akong pagsabot ana you have 30 days, the justices have the time. It can be tomorrow, the day after, up to May 2 or May 10. Mao na ang balaod. That’s mandatory under the law,” he said in an interview on April 30.
Several Facebook pages also shared a screenshot of the alleged order issued by Sandiganbayan. However, the content of the Sandiganbayan resolution, was not the suspension order of Mayor Moreno, but a decision of his co-accused Engineer Rolando Pacuribot’s motion.
Nicole Managbanag, Padayon-Centrist Democratic Party’s communications director, questioned the accusation of Moreno’s camp.
“Why single out La Viña when in fact he is not Moreno’s only opponent. Also, Moreno’s cases were also actually posted in the Sandiganbayan website, it’s not fake news, that one of his co-accused motion was denied,” Managbanag said.
Managbanag said La Viña also never issued a statement that Moreno was suspended.
“Maybe they are saying it is fake news to condition the minds of the people, so that if there really is a suspension order, the people will call it fake news even if it has truth,” she added.
Meanwhile, the denied motion filed by Pacuribot was promulgated on April 29, 2019 for its three cases of graft and corruption, when he was then the acting provincial engineering head of Misamis Oriental and Moreno was then the governor.
Pacuribot’s lawyers argued that the case be dismissed as there were irregularities in the filing of the case on December 2017, which has something to do with the provincial government’s spending amounting to P3.9 million for renting heavy equipment owned from a contractor in 2009.
Another two cases against him and Moreno for another incident involving the lease of equipment in 2012 amounting to P26,000.
But according to Sandiganbayan Justice Oscar Herrera, who chaired the three-justice composition in deliberating the motion, there were no sufficient grounds to grant Pacuribot's appeal, citing that the case against them were followed with due process. (PJ Orias)