Jueteng, plunder, Probe up in Pangasinan politics

By JennelynMondejar

DAGUPAN CITY – Charges over jueteng takes and plunder are now being aired by top politicians and their supporters with the start of the campaign season in Pangasinan.

Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza insisted last week no P4.7-billion plunder complaint was filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Contrary to reports, Braganza said what 15 incumbent and former barangay chiefs filed with the Ombudsman was a mere letter-request for investigation against him and 15 other local officials.

“Until today I do not know if I was sued of plunder or I was a victim of black propaganda only because until today we have yet to receive a copy of an alleged complaint by some barangay captains and former barangay captains of the city of Alaminos in the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said in a press conference in a restaurant here.

The mayor was accompanied by his legal counsels, Efren Moncupa and Leonido Pulido, in the press briefing.

“I have no plunder case and I dare our friends from the media to write the truth that there is no plunder case filed against me,” he said.

What he received, according to Braganza, was an unsigned complaint distributed to Manila reporters last week, adding there is a difference if what was filed in the Ombudsman was a case or a mere request to be investigated.

“I am saddened that our barangay captains misled our journalist-friends in Manila,” Braganza, a former Press secretary, said in Filipino.

Braganza’s lawyers said the document filed by the barangay chiefs last Friday was not a valid criminal complaint “but a mere letter-request for investigation of ongoing projects in Alaminos City.

“For us lawyers, this is misrepresentation and an utter falsehood, an invention,” Moncupa said.

“What they filed in the Ombudsman, they indicated ‘verified joint complaint-affidavit,’” he said.

“What they are seeking in the Ombudsman, not even one did they mention that Mayor Braganza committed plunder. They have six requests, all of these they want the Ombudsman to investigate on presumable commissions the mayor might have earned from the projects like the airport, etc., constructed but they did not say that Mayor Braganza committed plunder with the money involved,” Moncupa said.

For his part, Pulido said, “I don’t want to call this a case; I’d rather call it a circus.”

Pulido said there is no such case as “attempted plunder,” and for it to be plunder, two things must happen: first, you pocketed the money and second, it reached P50 million.

Although he is ready to answer the allegations, Braganza said he will file a perjury case against the barangay captains who he tagged as the political lieutenants of his political rival.

“Definitely I will file a case against them. Either I see them in court or I see them in hell,” he said.

Braganza described the move of his opponents as “not a plunder case but a major case of political blunder.”

“We are very much ready to be investigated. I will face it squarely as a real man,” he said. 

Braganza said the village chiefs submitted false statements before the Ombudsman. “How can they claim that they have personal knowledge of the allegations when what they submitted to the Ombudsman were merely lifted from the Alaminos City website and from the accomplishment report of our city engineer’s office?”

Braganza said he has yet to officially receive a copy of the document filed by the village chiefs although he was able to get hold of documents furnished reporters during a press briefing in Quezon City.

He said the press conference was attended by lawyer AbrahanEspejo, the lead counsel of Gov. Amado Espino Jr. in a plunder case filed against him by Bugallon Mayor Rodrigo Orduña for allegedly receiving millions of pesos in jueteng payola.

Braganza said he does not believe Espejo when he said that it was mere coincidence that he is the lawyer of both Espino and the barangay heads.

Braganza described the allegations against him as absurd and ridiculous. “Do I look like a billionaire? Will a small-time city mayor accumulate billions of pesos from the budget of his local government unit? Just absurd and ridiculous,” he said.

Mediamen tried to get reactions from Espino’s camp through provincial information officer Orpheus Velasco but failed.