DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – Jueteng whistle-blower Mayor Rodrigo Orduña yesterday challenged Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to show a copy of his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) to prove that he got his earnings from businesses and not from jueteng payola.
In a press conference here, Orduña, mayor of Bugallon town, also dared Espino to undergo a lie detector test along with him.
Orduña stood firm in his allegations that Espino had received as much as P900 million in jueteng payola until his falling out with the governor. He has admitted being an operator of the illegal numbers game.
“He should show his SALN and that is where the story would revolve. He should face it in court,” he said.
Orduña said after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy, Espino had been a government employee until he retired as Region 1 police director and got elected as congressman and governor.
He said it is normal for Espino to deny the accusations, adding though that he has other witnesses who could corroborate what he stated in his sworn affidavit in the plunder case he filed against the governor at the Office of the Ombudsman.
“This is also hurting me because we had a good relationship in the past. But the truth will set us free,” he said.
Orduña and his supporters paid a courtesy call on Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas yesterday before the press conference.
“I leave everything to God now and I hope what I did would serve a lesson to other people,” he said.
“I will not gain anything here but headaches and troubles only but I have to for the people to know the truth,” he added.
Meanwhile, Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza advised Espino to “look at the mirror and see who’s to blame for the jueteng mess in Pangasinan.”
In a statement, the Liberal Party (LP) in Pangasinan quoted Braganza as saying that Espino should stop from blaming everybody for the unhampered operations of jueteng and other illegal numbers games in the province.
Braganza, which LP is pitting against re-electionist Espino in the gubernatorial race, said the governor has no one to blame but himself for the legal quandary and the political quagmire that he is facing at the moment.
“First, he is blaming the mayors of Pangasinan for issuing permits for jai alai which is now the cover of jueteng operations in the province. Later, he started pointing his finger at me as the source of his political problems,” Braganza said.
Citing Orduña’s allegations, Braganza said it was Espino who elevated the status of jueteng activities in Pangasinan from “guerrilla-type” to “province-wide and centralized” operations.
Orduña, who said he used to be a trusted political lieutenant of Espino, filed a plunder case against the governor for allegedly receiving about P900 million in protection money from jueteng and other illegal numbers games in the province.
Orduña’s allegations were corroborated by Fernando Alimagno alias Boy Bata, the PDP-Laban mayoral candidate in Candelaria, Quezon, who admitted that he was one of the biggest operators of jueteng and jai alai in Pangasinan.
Orduña alleged that Espino cajoled him into forming a partnership so they could take over jueteng operations in Pangasinan immediately after the latter was elected governor in 2007.
Espino has denied the allegations, which he dismissed as “politically motivated” and “an old issue.”
But Braganza said Espino has the habit of using the term “politically motivated” every time he would be linked to illegal activities such as black sand mining and quarrying or would carry out “anti-people” policies such as the 300 percent increase in real property tax.