Liberal Party stalwart denounces graft raps

MANILA, Philippines - Former Bukidnon congressman Nereus Acosta, a stalwart of the Liberal Party (LP), yesterday denounced the graft case filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly misusing P10.5 million in public funds during his term seven years ago.

“I stand by my record of environmental legislation (as principal author of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts), non-government organizations (NGO) and community-based work in Mindanao, and the legitimate use of public funds for my district during my first two terms,” Acosta said in a statement sent to The STAR.

Sen. Mar Roxas, LP president, also denounced the Ombudsman’s move, saying Acosta “has unfortunately become an unwitting collateral damage in these renewed attacks by the Arroyo administration against me and the Liberals for standing up for accountability and good governance.”

“We expect that they will use the ‘rule by law and coercion’ at the expense of the rule of law,” Roxas said in a statement.

The Ombudsman announced the other day its decision to file charges against Acosta before the Sandiganbayan based on a complaint lodged against him in 2001.

Acosta, together with his mother Socorro, former mayor of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, and his maternal aunt Ma. Nemia Bornidor, is being accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Acosta is accused of illegally transferring a P2.5-million solar tunnel dryer from one town to another for the use of the Bukidnon Integrated Network of Home Industries Inc. (Binhi), a private entity.

He is also accused of releasing P2.5 million in public funds to Binhi where his aunt is a board member, and another P5.5 million to the Bukidnon Vegetables Producers Cooperative, another private entity.

“I am fully prepared to present any evidence attesting to this, as we have answered all charges leveled against me and my mother previously,” he said.

“I will face the bar of public opinion and any court of law, as any public servant ought to when called to account for his actions while in office,” he said.

Acosta bewailed how the case “used by my political opponents as an election issue against me during my campaign for a third term in 2004” has resurfaced.

He recalled that the Ombudsman revived the case at the height of the “Hello, Garci” controversy and just a few days after he endorsed the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo in 2005.

“I was stripped of my chairmanship of the (House) committee on ecology and did not receive any pork barrel funds for the rest of my final term in Congress,” he said.

In 2006, Acosta said he was one of four congressmen who again endorsed a second impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo a year before former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano ran for congressman in the first district of Bukidnon.

“I find it utterly malicious that this case is being sent to the Sandiganbayan at a time when Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is under intense fire from various sectors for failing to act on large-scale, multimillion-peso graft cases,” he said.

Acosta said he now belongs to a large group of private citizens and groups led by Bantay Katarungan, Kilosbayan and former Senator Jovito Salonga that is preparing an impeachment complaint against Gutierrez. 

The Office of the Ombudsman, however, dismissed Acosta’s claim that the graft case against him has political color.

“It’s only the facts of the case, the evidence and the law that were considered,” Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr. told The STAR.

On the issue of an impeachment complaint against Gutierrez, he said the Office of the Ombudsman would deal with it at the proper time if such a complaint would indeed be filed.

“We still believe that our honorable congressmen will not be swayed by the few detractors of the Ombudsman. We will cross the bridge when we get there,” De Jesus said.