Bacolod officials eye counter charges vs. radio blocktimer, others in Ombudsman complaint

Bacolod City officials are planning to file counter charges against a radio block timer and those behind him in filing graft and administrative complaints filed against them.

Radio block timer Roger Ledesma filed graft and administrative complaints against Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and other city officials involving the Bacolod government’s purchase of 74.76 hectares of kand in Hacienda Conchita, Barangay Granada, for P971.86 million, which Ledesma alleged as an anomalous land banking project.

Benitez called the complaints “a propaganda.”

Ledesma, a blocktimer at DYRL-Bacolod, filed the complaint against city officials before the Office of the Ombudsman on March 13.

Benitez and councilors Al Victor Espino, Jude Thaddeus Sayson, and Kalaw Puentevella, at a press conference Monday afternoon said they had not received a copy of the complaint and only learned about it on social media.

They maintained there was nothing anomalous in the purchase of the property.

They also said “the timing of the filing of the case and the personalities involved clearly indicate that it is politically motivated.”

“The process in acquiring the property went through rigid, stringent procedures and had no adverse Commission on Audit findings,” Benitez said.

“If you know the complaint and his inner circles you will know where that case is coming from”, Benitez said, adding that it is the first case ever filed against him.

“My understanding is the Ombudsman still has to determine if the complaint has merit,” Benitez said.

Councilor Espino, in calling the complaint filed before the Ombudsman Visayas as “malicious and politically motivated”, added that “we will get into the bottom of this, because there is a conspiracy that we are uncovering. Bigger people are involved.”

He also noted that the complainant was “selective” in the filing of complaints in the Ombudsman, by sparing members of the appraisal and land banking committees.

Sayson meanwhile explained that the purchase of the property was prepared for one year and six months.

“We went through the rigid process that is being given to us by the law. We followed it until to the very end,” Sayson said.

He said he is sharing also the sentiments of Espino and Councilor Jesus Claudio “Kalaw” Puentevella that the “timing is really questionable.”* (Eugene Y. Adiong)