By Mario Supnad
SANTIAGO,
Ilocos Sur- The case over “unexplained wealth” filed against incumbent Mayor
Josefino “Boy” Miranda of this town had been dismissed for lack of merit.
In an interview inside
the house of Miranda by this writer, he said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan
(provincial board) unanimously dismissed few months ago his case not only for
lack of merit but also in the absence of complainant or witnesses.
“Dinismis nga sigida ti
SP ta awan met ti agrekreklamo,” (The SP dismissed it immediately for lack of
complainant), Miranda said last week.
The unexplained wealth
issue against Miranda gained media’s attention after an unknown complainant
wrote a letter and filed it before the SP, and had it furnished the Ombudsman,
a government agency investigating corrupt public officials, Commission on Audit
and Dept. of Interior and Local Government.
The
DILG also conducted its own investigation.
Among the assets being
questioned by the complainant were the Santiago Cove Hotel in Sabangan Beach
and service vehicles among others owned allegedly by the mayor.
“I loaned P20million
from a bank for the financing of the hotel while a number of our vehicles are
under the names of my children, and not mine,” the mayor said.
Miranda is now on his
second third and last term or 18 years (if he completes his last term) as mayor
and had been vice mayor for six years, the longest serving top local officials
in this town.
“Of course, since from
the start, I was optimistic that the case against me would be dismissed due to
lack of complainant,” he said.
“It will be a bad
precedent for other mayors if they (SP, Ombudsman) would give credence to such
unknown, unsubstantiated cases,” Miranda added.
The unidentified
complainant failed to show up before SP when the board members summoned him to
shed light on the complaints.
The SP members dismissed
the case unanimously.
The Ombudsman can
initiate investigation even an unsigned and unknown complaint filed before the
graft government court.
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