Fuentebella son defends father on bill

The son of Deputy Speaker for Luzon Arnulfo Fuentebella took the cudgels for his father from accusations that the lawmaker was feeding on the feud between Representative Luis R. Villafuerte and his son, Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., in pushing for a split of the province.

Fuentebella is the main author of a House bill that seeks to carve out a province to be called Nueva Camarines and comprising the fourth and fifth districts.

“It cannot be true that my father is feeding on the feud because he actually has been trying to patch up the rift between Louie (Villafuerte Sr.) and L-Ray (Villafuerte Jr.),” said Mayor Arnulf Bryan Fuentebella of Tigaon town.

The mayor said in a phone interview on Saturday that when L-Ray ran for re-election in 2007 and sought the support of the Fuentebellas, his father had told L-Ray that it would be better if the differences between him and his father would be settled first.
“My father volunteered to initiate the talks between Louie and L-Ray. Louie agreed, but
L-Ray said there was no need for my father to act as middleman and that he himself would talk with his father,” the younger Fuentebella said.

In February 2007, he said L-Ray even came to their house in Barangay Abella here, “but the governor was not able to meet Louie.”

“After three days, it was Louie’s turn to come to our house. They did not meet,” he said.

“So it could not be true that we are feeding on the feud between the two because, in fact, we, especially my father, are trying to patch up the rift between them. We may be political rivals, but my father and Louie were allies once and my father believes that it’s not good to see the two quarrelling,” the mayor said.

He said that the proposal to create Nueva Camarines was not politically motivated.

“Camarines Sur is just too big. How can a governor visit all the more than 1,000 barangays in 365 days? If the new province will be created, the problem on attending to the [villages] would be eased,” he said. Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon