RTC stops solon’s use of pork

A Caloocan City judge on Friday ordered the suspension of a congressman’s pork barrel releases in connection with a medical assistance program, after his political nemesis alleged that he was using them to buy votes.

Judge Dionisio Sison of Caloocan City Regional Trial Court Branch 125 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by Mayor Enrico Echiverri, who questioned the way Rep. Oscar Malapitan had used his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The TRO applies not only to Malapitan but also to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) which processes applications for the program and cashes the check issued to the beneficiaries by the congressman’s office, according to the ruling.

In a petition filed earlier this week, Echiverri wanted the PDAF disbursements stopped as he questioned a Commission on Elections resolution allowing congressmen to use the fund during the campaign season for projects that were started before the election period. The petition particularly cited Malapitan’s case.

Echiverri is running for congressman to succeed Malapitan in the city’s 1st District. The lawmaker, on the other hand, is seeking the mayoralty in next month’s elections.

Reached for comment, Malapitan said “we had filed our opposition to the TRO (and) joined the Comelec and the DSWD in questioning the jurisdiction of the court.”

“It is unfortunate that Echiverri is victimizing DSWD and its poor beneficiaries just to politically assassinate me,” he said in a text message to reporters.

The petition cited affidavits purportedly executed by four women in Caloocan who had been given checks worth P3,000 each by Malapitan’s staff in exchange for their support.

When the women cashed the checks at the DSWD main office in Quezon City, the congressman’s people allegedly met them again to take back P2,600 from each, the affidavits said.

Malapitan’s camp earlier denied the allegations.