Senatorial bet Baligod wows Ormoc on his battle vs corruption in government

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — Independent senatorial aspirant, lawyer Levi Baligod, visited this city recently and attended a gathering of representatives from different private organizations, religious sector, academe, youth and friends with whom he discussed his thoughts and actions against corruption in government.

Baligod, the lawyer who represented in court the whistleblowers against Janet Lim Napoles and the government’s priority development assistance fund (PDAF) scam, narrated his fight and trials against corruption as well as his reasons why he is running as an independent candidate.

In his interactions with the Ormocanons, Baligod impressed them with his courage, sincerity and truthfulness in his actions, as he defied the system by filing plunder cases against the higher-ups in government, without fear or favor.

“After the initial bribe offer of P5 million by a colleague, as instructed by (Janet) Napoles, which I turned down, a government official later called me up for a meeting saying that somebody wants to meet me. When I showed up in the specified date and place, I was surprised to see Janet Napoles who, in that instance, offered me P300 million in exchange for withdrawing the cases. I also refused,” he said.

“With that bribe money, my family could have live a lifetime of wealth, but I opted not to. … We must fight corruption to free our countrymen from the bondage of poverty,” he told the Ormocanons.

Baligod said he later filed cases against four senators, but got dismayed when only three of them were charged by the Justice Department and detained. He told The FREEMAN one of the senators was a Liberal Party member, but he refused to name the legislator.

The fiery lawyer said he also filed plunder cases against 44 House representatives, but then nothing came out of it until now. He said that it was when he hit the administration’s legislators that the cases got stalled at the Ombudsman or at the DOJ.

This outcome had disappointed him so much, but prompted him to seek for a seat in the Senate for him to have a better fighting chance against corruption in government.

When asked why he is seeking a Senate seat as an independent candidate, Baligod said: “As of now, there are already senators and congressmen in deep trouble due to the PDAF scam. I am not comfortable going with them during the campaign.”

Baligod also cited the reluctance of the Aquino administration to pursue the charges filed against its partymates as his main reason for not joining them.

Baligod, who is now in Davao City for dialogues with leaders there, admitted that running as an independent candiate requires massive personal resources and bigger challenges.

He however believed that the Filipino people deserves better, and this he said strengthened his resolve even more to take up the challenge and fight corruption in government to the end.

After that brief meeting with the Ormocanons, a number of organizations had openly invited him to attend in their respective forthcoming activities. Baligod accepted them.  — Edgar Allan Vilbar (FREEMAN)