Robredo seeks COA help over graft raps vs CamSur gov

INTERIOR Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said his department is coordinating with the Commission on Audit (COA) on the corruption complaints against his cousin and fellow Bicolano, Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymond “LRay” Villafuerte Jr.

He also gave an assurance that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) would not be influenced by his blood ties and personal enmity with the powerful Villafuerte clan.

“I have referred complaints to COA to secure disposition of adverse findings,” Robredo said of the cases against Villafuerte, son of Rep. Luis Robredo Villafuerte, Robredo’s erstwhile patron-turned-political foe.

“You can check on my past record… [I] have always been fair regardless of who has been involved,” Robredo said in text messages to the Inquirer.

The younger Villafuerte is facing several graft and malversation charges, including at least 11 cases at the Office of the Ombudsman based on COA’s 2009 audit findings, according to an Inquirer column.

The cases include accusations that Camarines Sur incurred a P168 million cash overdraft in 2009; cash advances to officers and employees amounting to P24 million remained un-liquidated at yearend; and the province spent P132 million in donations for social programs without approved designs and established criteria.

In a phone interview, the governor accused Robredo of being part of a “political hatchet job against me.”

“It is pathetic that the DILG secretary no less is masterminding a demolition job on me on the basis of trumped-up charges,” Villafuerte said.

He said there was nothing for Robredo to coordinate with the COA, insisting the issues raised by COA were “mere observations” on actions by the provincial government that “were subsequently corrected and settled.”

He said the nine cases filed against him at the Ombudsman were “nuisance complaints filed by one person, six of which have been dismissed for lack of merit.”

“The secretary must be in dreamland in launching an apparent witch hunt against me,” Villafuerte said.

Robredo said the latest finding by COA involved the “alleged irregular disbursements of P20 million for gasoline, etc.”

Robredo, who received a Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000, served for six terms as mayor of Naga City, the gateway to Camarines Sur. He was a protege of his uncle, the older Villafuerte, before they had a falling out in the early 1990s.

He also previously tussled with the younger Villafuerte on the government’s full disclosure policy (FDP), which requires local government units to post their budget and finances on their web sites, in print media and conspicuous places in their areas.

Villafuerte questioned at the Supreme Court the three memorandum circulars that Robredo had issued on FDP, saying these were unconstitutional—a charge the secretary dismissed as bereft of merit.