Why pick on us? Suspended mayor asks Ombudsman

Why are local officials being singled out by the Office of the Ombudsman?

Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella on Thursday posed this question as he assailed the antigraft body’s decision to approve his indictment for the alleged misuse of P26 million of his pork barrel when he was still a congressman.

Puentevella, who has been suspended by the Sandiganbayan after he was charged with graft in July, noted that most of the government personnel who were recently indicted and dismissed from the service by the Ombudsman were local government officials.

He said it was puzzling that none of the dozens of lawmakers who were implicated in controversial cases, such as the P10-billion pork barrel scam, was fired by the Ombudsman for administrative charges.

“Are congressmen untouchables? Almost 99 percent of those being hit by the Ombudsman are local officials,” Puentevella told the Inquirer. “That’s really very surprising.”

Rivals, allies sacked

In recent months, the Ombudsman had brought various criminal cases against a slew of public officials, among them rivals and allies of President Aquino, in connection with questionable transactions they had entered into.

The Ombudsman’s anticorruption drive had led to the sacking of well-known politicians, including Makati Mayor Junjun Binay who was axed in connection with the alleged anomalous construction of the P2.28-billion Makati City Hall Building II.

Two of the President’s political allies, Capiz Gov. Victor Tanco and Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno, both members of the ruling Liberal Party, had also been given the pink slip over separate graft cases.

Puentevella insisted that the case against him should have been dismissed outright as it took the Ombudsman nearly seven years before it acted on the complaint which was filed in 2007.

Cert petition filed

He has since filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court questioning his indictment for graft, which stemmed from the purported irregularities in the purchase of P26 million worth of computers using his pork barrel allocations in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

The mayor also claimed that the case against him was the handiwork of his longtime political rival, Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia, who has filed his certificate for candidacy for mayor in the May 2016 general elections.

“There is a very clear (jurisprudence) that the right to speedy resolution of all individuals is guaranteed by the Constitution. There are a number of cases which have been dismissed after the Ombudsman failed to act on them after four years,” he said.

“My case has been gathering dust for more than seven years. How come the Ombudsman suddenly resurrected it?” he lamented. “This is all purely political because the man behind the accusations against me is the same man who will challenge me in the coming elections.”

He also claimed that Leonardia himself was facing at least six plunder cases and 20 other graft-related complaints, but the Ombudsman had failed to act on them.