'Magdalo raps vs Negros mayor politically motivated'

BACOLOD CITY ,Philippines  – The plunder charges filed by the Samahang Magdalo Inc. against Sipalay City Mayor Oscar Montilla Jr. and his family are just politically motivated, the two top officials of Negros Occidental said yesterday.

“It is plainly political because his opponent in the last elections is with the Magdalo group,” Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said.

Former Capt. Gary Alejano, president of the Samahang Magdalo, lost to Montilla in the 2010 elections, he said.

“What is worse is that the mayor’s mother is sick and they included her in the charges. It is really up to the conscience of those who filed the case,” he added.

Marañon said that since the charges filed against Montilla are “old cases,” and the fact that he was already re-elected, the charges should have been considered moot and academic under the so-called Aguinaldo Doctrine.

Under the Aguinaldo Doctrine, all administrative cases filed against any public official during his previous term, are rendered moot immediately after the official’s re-election.

For his part, Vice Gov. Genaro Alvarez said he agrees that the charges filed against Montilla are politically motivated.

He added that during his term as congressman of the sixth district of Negros Occidental, and with Montilla as mayor of Sipalay (which belongs to the same district), the projects implemented in the locality were in order.

Former soldiers belonging to the so-called Magdalo group, who are now in a crusade to fight graft and corruption on the local level, joined a concerned citizen in filing a P480-million plunder case against Montilla and other members of his political clan.

Former lieutenants Filmore Rull and Ashley Acedillo, with the support of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who led the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the November 2007 Manila Peninsula siege, filed, along with Rodolfo Divinagracia, a 35-page criminal complaint against Mayor Montilla, accusing the local chief executive of stealing from the city coffers for 23 years.

Also named respondents were former mayor Soledad Montilla, incumbent Vice Mayor Gina Montilla-Lizares, and the mayor’s wife, Juana Jamora-Montilla, and 21 other city officials and private individuals.

Plunder

Divinagracia, a member of the Samahang Magdalo, composed of over 200 former soldiers and 115,000 civilian volunteers, said the Montillas, from 1987 to 2010, “systematically pillaged and plundered the treasury of Sipalay City through a never-ending series of kickbacks in infrastructure projects, rigged bidding or no bidding at all, questionable loans and wasteful use of the city’s Internal Revenue Allotments and other income.”

Divinagracia said Mayor Montilla’s alleged unexplained assets include a three-story building, a resort, an ice plant, a residence at Ayala North in Talisay City covering a whole block of the high-end subdivision, two condominium units at Megaworld Tower in Taguig City, construction firms, a mansion in Barangay Gil Montilla in Sipalay City, and other real estate properties.

But Montilla dismissed the charges as “politically motivated,” saying that Alejano’s group has been coming up with recycled and unfounded charges against him and his administration since he defeated Alejano in the 2010 mayoralty race.

Alejano had also filed an electoral protest against Montilla but the Commission on Elections dismissed it for lack of basis, he said.

Montilla said he has managed the city government of Sipalay with utmost transparency. He said as a reaffirmation of this, the Department of the Interior and Local Government recently accorded the city government with the Seal of Good Housekeeping.

The recognition is given to local government units after a thorough review by the DILG of their operations, Montilla added.

In a related development, Divinagracia, who filed the charges against Montilla, is facing an estafa case and has been issued a warrant of arrest, said Tomas Tronco Jr., the mayor’s executive assistant. 

In a press statement, Tronco said Montilla issued the information to shed light on Divinagracia’s credibility. 

In a resolution, Sipalay City prosecutor Ma. Leila Presaldo found enough evidence to file estafa charges against Divinagracia, following a complaint filed by Esperanza Secula against him for allegedly misappropriating P34,790 that he received from the Sipalay City government as her attorney-in-fact.

Secula said her family occupied a parcel of land planted with various trees in Barangay Nauhang, Sipalay.

Part of the lot was affected by a road construction project of the Sipalay City government that caused the cutting and removal of some trees that the city assessor’s office valued at P34,790.

The prosecutor said the evidence presented showed that Divinagracia was given authority by Secula to claim the payment from the city government. 

The failure of Divinagracia to account for the money raises reasonable presumption that he misappropriated it, the prosecutor said.