Eastern Samar governor: Complaint baseless, politically motivated

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone yesterday branded as baseless and politically motivated the complaint filed against him by Rep. Teodolo Coquilla before the Ombudsman.

Evardone said the timing of the filing was highly suspicious because it was done after the majority of the mayors, board members and barangay chairmen endorsed him to run for Congress in next year’s elections.

“Obviously, he (Coquilla) is running scared because of his non-performance and the groundswell of support I get from the local leaders if I decide to run for Congress against him next year,” Evardone said.

He said that the complaint was based on a 2006 transaction “which was cleared by COA and approved unanimously by the provincial board.”

In his complaint, Coquilla said there was alleged overpricing in the purchase of hand tractors. However, Evardone said, the COA said there was no overpricing in the purchase of hand tractors, pump boat engines and heavy equipment.

Coquilla claimed that the province bought the hand tractors at about P90,000 and sold it to the farmers at about P85,000, thus the province lost about P5,000 each. “It is clear that he (Coquilla) does not know what he is talking about. For his information, the province could even have given the tractors for free but we decided to loan it at 50 percent discount with a very minimal interest and reasonable grace period to help the farmers. The 50 percent discount was approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan,” Evardone said.

Evardone said, “We adopted this scheme because we don’t want to burden our people but at the same time we don’t want to perpetuate the dole-out practice.” In fact, he said, some are still requesting for hand tractors and fishing boat engines.

On his complaint that the provincial government has been extending financial support to NGOs and persons in crisis situation, Evardone said: “What is wrong in giving financial aid to the Federation of Barangay Health Workers for the purchase of medical kits, or the senior citizens’ organizations, and what is wrong with helping people whose relatives are in hospitals or whose children need to pay tuition fees?”

Evardone said the complaint is just a propaganda ploy to gain media mileage to counter his being the most hated and unpopular politician in the province because of his non-performance and alleged immorality.