NAGA CITY—Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella described as a falsehood a report saying the small truck loaded with soil and other materials that was stopped in a village in Camarines Sur was carrying filling materials for a resort in the town.
In a letter to the Inquirer on Jan. 27, Fuentebella, through lawyer Jose Miguel Palarca, said the report which came out in the Inquirer on Jan. 15 was “replete with falsehood and was clearly intended to malign the Fuentebella family.”
“The Elf truck was not loaded with filling materials which were quarried from Barangay Patitinan,” said the letter.
It said “the filling materials referred to in the article were actually debris brought about by landslides which occurred due to continuous rains in Sañgay, Camarines Sur.”
“The Elf truck was in fact, hired by Barangay Patitinan in order to remove the rock slumps and earth which clogged Kilometer 72 and the drainage canal therein,” added the letter.
The clearing operation was part of the local government unit’s disaster mitigation activity, said the letter.
Referring to a portion of the Jan. 15 report that read: “The truck was hired by Partido Construction, a firm reportedly owned by the family of Fuentebella,” Palarca said that contrary to the report, “the Elf truck was a property of Partido Construction, a company which is owned by Abner P. Ferrer.”