Tom tells Teddy: Nothing libelous with statements

The threat of a libel suit against him for statements allegedly maligning Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano doesn't faze Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña instead said that there was nothing libelous about what he said regarding the controversy surrounding the purchase of overpriced decorative lampposts used to beautify the roads for the 12th ASEAN Summit.

The Cebu City mayor explained that his statements were not intended to malign the integrity of Ouano, who has strongly denied involvement into the controversy.

"Anyone can file charges. At least he did not deny that he had signed the program of works and estimates for the lamppost projects in Mandaue City," said Osmeña yesterday.

Osmeña earlier criticized the Visayas Ombudsman for not placing Ouano and Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza under preventive suspension when the controversy surfaced. Ouano explained that the City of Mandaue only prepared the Program of Works and Estimates for the installation of decorative lampposts, which now being investigated by anti-graft investigators.

The Mandaue mayor has already instructed his lawyers to prepare the needed documents for the filing of a libel complaint, not only versus Osmeña, but also against the newspapers that published the alleged libelous remarks.

Ouano said that Osmeña's move of suggesting to the Ombudsman that he and Radaza should be preventively suspended, could be understood already that he is sure that both of them are involved in the anomaly.

The fact-finding committee of the Ombudsman had found enough basis to indict Ouano, Radaza and other ranking officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the anomalous purchase of lampposts.

Ouano claimed that his family has been affected by the controversy and his filing a complaint against Osmeña is a way to vindicate their name.

In a related development, the region's Interagency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council had asked the public to refrain from pressuring the Ombudsman investigators to speed up the investigation into the reported overpricing in the purchase of decorative lampposts.

Civil Service Commission regional director David Cabanag, who heads the anti-graft council, said the Ombudsman probers have their full support. The controversial decorative lampposts were found to have been grossly overpriced. They were installed on selected streets of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu that served as the ceremonial route for the heads of state, who attended the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the East Asian Summit last January.

The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by militant groups. - (/NLQ)