Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte last night accused Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella of being behind the filing of a plunder complaint against him and his family in the Office of the Ombudsman.
“It seems Fuentebella has a penchant for turning nuisance candidates into nuisance case filers… desperate and scraping the bottom of the barrel,” Villafuerte said in a statement.
He was referring to, among others, former Camarines Sur Vice Governor Mariano Trinidad who filed on Monday plunder and other charges against Villafuerte, his wife and two sons, and six others for allegedly defrauding the provincial government of some P104 million.
“Mr. Trinidad ran for Congress in the fifth district of Camarines Sur but received only 956 votes out of 181,000 ballots cast—from a nuisance candidate to a filer of nuisance cases,” Villafuerte said.
“The other cases filed against me by Mr. Carlo Batalla, another Fuentebella ally, have been dismissed. Incidentally, he was also a nuisance candidate who lost his bid for vice governor, getting only 20,000 votes of the total 900,000 cast,” Villafuerte said.
Batalla filed a complaint of malversation of public funds against Villafuerte in June over the purchase of P20 million worth of fuel for the province that was reportedly not delivered.
Villafuerte in turn filed plunder and graft charges against Fuentebella, his wife and two sons in September for allegedly misusing more than P80 million in government funds to finance personal projects.