Plunder case won’t stop poll bid

ILOILO CITY—Despite an arrest warrant on a plunder case involving Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) funds, a congressional candidate is pursuing his electoral bid next year, according to his legal counsel.

Raymundo Roquero, a former PCSO director, has filed a certificate of candidacy for the lone congressional seat in Antique. An ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he is among the 10 former government officials, including Arroyo, who have been charged at the Sandiganbayan with misusing P325 million in PCSO intelligence funds from 2008 to 2010.

Roquero, a former mayor of Valderrama town in Antique, belongs to the Bag-ong Antiqueño, a coalition of groups affiliated with the United Nationalist Alliance led by Vice President Jejomar Binay. He is running against reelectionist Rep. Paolo Everardo Javier of the ruling Liberal Party (LP).

His lawyer, Victoriano Orocio, would file a petition for certiorari (judicial review) at the Supreme Court and ask for a temporary restraining order against the serving of the arrest warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan’s First Division.

“We have not received a copy of the Sandiganbayan resolution and learned about it only through news reports,” Orocio told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Sunday.

Orocio said he had advised his client to follow the law but that it would be up to him to decide on surrendering. He said he last spoke with Roquero over the phone on Wednesday.

He said Roquero was being dragged into the plunder case as “collateral damage” because of his association with Arroyo.

“There is no evidence whatever against my client to back up the charges and he never (stole) a single centavo. He is entitled to due process and he feels that there is a miscarriage of justice,” the lawyer said.

Lawyer Cornelio Aldon, the gubernatorial candidate of Bag-ong Antiqueño, said the plunder case would not affect the coalition’s campaign. Aldon is challenging Gov. Exequiel Javier. Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas