Public roads that lead to their mansions. A lighthouse that was turned into the view deck of a resort that the family owned. All built using taxpayers’ money.
Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. Thursday filed plunder and graft charges against Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, his wife and two sons for allegedly amassing and misusing more than P80 million in government funds to finance personal projects.
“Our message to the officials, especially to the Fuentebella family, is to stop this,” Villafuerte told reporters after filing the complaint at the Ombudsman.
Misused public funds
Charged with Fuentebella were his wife Evelyn, mayor of Sagnay town in Camarines Sur and sons Arnulf Bryan, mayor of Tigaon town, and Felix William, commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
Villafuerte alleged that the Fuentebellas amassed ill-gotten wealth by misappropriating, misusing and through malversation of public funds.
He said the family benefited from government contracts, illegally conveyed government assets and enriched themselves at the expense of government.
Among the cases cited were the alleged use of public funds on projects inside the Fuentebellas’ 50,000-square- meter property in Sitio Elis Point in Sagnay. Inside the sprawling lot is a P25-million mansion.
Among the projects that benefited the Fuentebellas, Villafuerte said, were a P15-million road that led straight to the 50,000-sq-m property, a P2-million multi-purpose building, a P2-million project to pave a road that also leads to it, a P1-million seawall and a P3-million lighthouse.
Lighthouse
The lighthouse, Villafuerte said, became the view deck of a resort owned by the Fuentebellas.
“All the foregoing projects apparently have two things in common: First they are all funded from government money and second, and ironically, they are all found in the private properties of the Fuentebellas, mostly within the Sitio Elis Point, the property of Arnulfo,” he said in the complaint.
The 50,000-sq-m property is just a portion of 335-hectare Fuentebella estate.
Villafuerte challenged the Fuentebellas to squarely face the charges instead of branding these as politically motivated.
‘No laughing matter’
“There’s no difference whether I’m the one filing or an ordinary citizen. What’s important is that they face the issue squarely,” he said.
“This is no laughing matter. We’re going up against a powerful person,” he said.
In the complaint, Villafuerte also alleged that the Fuentebellas built a P10-million sports complex and P15-million of roads in another property in Tigaon town.
He said the projects “were built on the Fuentebellas’ private land.”
On another family property in Tigaon town, a P5.6-million irrigation system was built “to cater to the Fuentebella lands,” Villafuerte said.
He said the deputy speaker could not personally afford the P25-million cost of the mansion in Sitio Elis, Sagnay since his recent statement of assets and liabilities indicated a net worth of P29.6 million and assets consisting of inheritance.
The governor sought the preventive suspension of the Fuentebellas.
Fuentebella speaks
Fuentebella said the accusations were a “pack of lies” and “an act of desperation by a sad, lonely man whose depths of depravity and paranoia have hit rock bottom when he sacrificed his own father before the altar of his all-consuming political ambition.”
He said instead of him, it was Villafuerte who must be charged with plunder based on Commission on Audit findings that the governor misused millions of pesos in taxpayers’ money from 2007-2009.
Fuentebella said he was confident the case won’t prosper, saying “my conscience is clear that I have served our country with all honesty and dedication through the years.”
“L-Ray (Villafuerte) is running wild and berserk,” he said. He added that it was Villafuerte’s way of stopping the creation of a new province out of Camarines Sur, to be called Nueva Camarines.
“The problem with L-Ray is he thinks he owns Camarines Sur,” said Fuentebella. “L-Ray thinks by attacking me, he can stop the paradigm shift.”