Palace to Pangasinan governor: Just face plunder complaint

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino yesterday advised embattled Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to stop complaining about alleged political harassment and just face squarely the plunder charges filed against him over his alleged involvement in jueteng.

Aquino made this suggestion through presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, who also shot down insinuations that the Aquino administration is harassing Espino, a political ally from the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

“As we have said and mentioned, politics is not involved when it comes to this particular case of Gov. Espino. We encourage him to just answer the charges against him in the proper forum,” she said over state-run radio station dzRB. 

Espino, a member of the NPC that is allied with Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP), is seeking re-election in the May 2013 elections, and is pitted against LP’s Hernani Braganza, mayor of Alaminos City.

It was Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, LP president, who accompanied Mayor Ricardo Orduña of Bugallon, Pangasinan in his press conference after he filed plunder charges against Espino at the Office of the Ombudsman last Friday. 

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda earlier said Aquino has directed Roxas to build a strong case against Espino and ensure the safety of witnesses.

Orduña, a self-confessed jueteng operator, accused Espino of earning P1 billion from jueteng operations in Pangasinan. He was joined by barangay chairman Fernando Alimagno, an alleged jueteng financier.

Meanwhile, a political analyst and former University of the Philippines (UP) official, questioned the timing of Orduna’s exposé, especially now that the 2013 midterm elections are nearing.

Legaspi, former director of the UP Center for Local and Regional Governance and former vice chancellor of UP Diliman, said it was obvious that politics was behind it to stain Espino’s reputation.

Legaspi, now the program head and professor at Lyceum-Northwestern University, said it’s normal that during elections all negative issues against a candidate would surface, but the public must always be vigilant when these pertain to governance.

Earlier, the NPC came to Espino’s defense and accused the Aquino administration of harassing him in anticipation of next year’s polls.