While admitting that he, indeed, fired his 9-mm. Beretta pistol during a wedding reception in Barangay Sto. Rosario here last May 22, Alvarado said he did so only to fend off an allegedly drunk attacker who, he claimed, had pushed him without provocation.
Josefino Manansala, 44, filed misconduct charges against Alvarado with the House ethics committee last Monday afternoon.
But Alvarado, who belongs to the ruling Lakas-NUCD party, said he got information as early as 11 a.m. last Monday that someone from the Senate had prepared the complaint for Manansala.
Alvarado denied that he was drunk during the wedding reception, saying he only took red wine for health reasons.
Alvarado said he went to the wedding reception being held at a basketball court in Barangay Sto. Rosario at about 2 p.m. after Mayor Toti Ople, the senator’s son, had left.
He said he noticed Manansala apparently drunk.
Alvarado said he delivered a short speech on the need for unity among local folk, and then approached the table of Manansala who, without any warning, pushed him.
Despite efforts by some guests to pacify him, Manansala, the solon said, continued to curse and threaten to attack him.
"My instinct was to seek the help of my companion who got my pistol I left in my vehicle and I fired warning shots in the air," Alvarado said.
He said he went to his nearby ancestral home after the incident to avoid further confrontation.
He recalled that he defeated Ople’s son Bernie in the mayoralty race here some years ago. In the last congressional elections, he defeated Raul Ople, another son of the senator.
"For one thing, why was the complaint against me cooked up at the Senate? It was me who immediately filed a criminal complaint against Manansala in court," Alvarado said.
He also noted that instead of filing any complaint against him in court, Manansala opted to call for a press conference. "The Oples are not protecting him. They are using him," he said.
He said he is ready to face the House ethics committee to clarify the issue, denying that he fired an Uzi rifle as Manansala has claimed.
He accused the local police of being partial to anything that would damage his political career.
"There are more serious problems in Hagonoy that the mayor has failed to tell his father," he said.
Alvarado said that when he was still Hagonoy mayor, the municipal government earned some P10 million a year from its fishponds.
"Now this income has been reduced to only about P1.5 million yearly since the fishpond dikes have been neglected," he said. — Ding Cervantes