Madridejos Mayor eyes libel raps vs. VM, others

Madridejos town mayor Lety Mancio is contemplating to file a P10 million libel suit against her vice mayor and eight municipal councilors who earlier charged her with graft before the Ombudsman for her alleged illegal disbursement of municipal funds amounting to more than P7 million.

Mancio, together with her lawyer, Nathaniel Clarus, called a press conference yesterday to announce their plan to file the case, saying that the allegation against her was unfounded and malicious.

Mancio questioned the timing of the filing of the case against her before the Ombudsman-Visayas because it was done while she was in Hong Kong. She added that the case was only filed recently when the questioned transactions happened in 2005.

According to Mancio, the accusation against her is politically motivated because Vice Mayor Virgilio Atienza and Councilors Delfin Santillan, Emelita Gabito, Randolph Rivera, Ricline Asentista, Isaias Bacolod, Reynaldo Monsanto, Bernabe Compra, Sr. and Owen Daruga have already left her political camp.

Aside from the members of the municipal council, Mancio said she would also file a separate libel case against some media personalities, especially the announcers of Bantay Radyo where Gabito is also working.

Mancio denied the accusation that she made the unauthorized disbursements of P7,379,963.37 from February to August 2005.

She presented a copy of the Commission on Audit report, which shows that the amount referred to by the municipal council members in their complaint before the Ombudsman was spent for various projects.

In fact, the COA report certified that 21 projects were already 100 percent complete.

Atienza and the eight councilors earlier trooped to the Ombudsman to file the graft case against Mancio. They based their complaint on an alleged fact-finding investigation conducted by the council committee on finance, appropriation and blue ribbon in relation to the 2005 COA report on the town's finances.

However, Mancio said Councilor Niel Mulle, one of the two councilors who have allied with her, told her that such report does not exist. The mayor said Mulle's statement bolstered their claim that the case against her was malicious and politically motivated. - Fred P. Languido/LPM