Cainta mayor cries political harassment over graft raps

Cainta, Rizal Mayor Mon Ilagan cried political harassment over the graft charges filed against him and other municipal officials by his detractors with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Ilagan said the local elections are just around the corner and his political foes are resorting to "black propaganda" to destroy his reputation and good standing.

He reacted to the graft charges filed against him by Cainta resident Salvador Francisco in connection with alleged overpricing in the purchases of P1.5 million worth of medical kits and P3 million worth of computers, as well as blackboards, tables, armchairs and textbooks in 2004.

Francisco claimed that Ilagan’s camp had tried to silence him with a P500,000 bribe.

Together with minority municipal councilors Amado Felix and Edgardo Romero, Francisco denied that politics had something to do with the charges he filed against Ilagan.

"I’m not affiliated with any political party. When I ran for councilor in the 2004 elections, I ran as an independent candidate," he said.

Francisco said Ilagan promised good governance in the last elections "and the people of Cainta believed him."

"But he failed to live up to his promise and I am doing my share to correct it," he said in a press conference the other day.

Felix and Romero said the municipal council approved a resolution on Dec. 6, 2004 authorizing Ilagan to purchase P1.5 worth of medicines for families affected by typhoon "Yoyong."

But unknown to them, the councilors alleged that Ilagan instead bought 60 medical kits costing P25,000 each.

Felix and Romero claimed that Ilagan only distributed 20 of the medical kits.

Francisco said his own investigation showed that the medical kits were overpriced since each kit cost only P15,000. — Non Alquitran