Leonardia: I deserve NPC endorsement

BACOLOD Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Monday the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) gave its endorsement to him as its official candidate for Congress as NPC officials feel that it would be for the best interest of the party to give it to the one who deserves it.

"Let me make it very clear. We did not even attempt to expel or make any move against the incumbent congressman (Bacolod Rep. Anthony Golez Jr.). It was more of the positive move to make me the official candidate of the NPC. If he did not get the endorsement of the NPC, it was his own fault because of his weird and childish behavior as an NPC member. Look. No NPC member had endorsed him at all. For that to happen to an incumbent tells us a lot. Meaning, he was particularly asking for it. So, how can one be endorsed if he is doing acts inimical to the party?" he asked.

Leonardia was told that Golez claimed that he made NPC candidates win in the last election. “If that is not a lie, that is hallucination,” said Leonardia.  

For Golez to say that the signing of the manifesto was a hostage-taking Mayor Bing style, Leonardia said is an insult to the barangay chiefs for him to say that they were misled. They knew what they were doing and that they were not offered money.

Unlike Golez when he asked for their endorsement when he wanted to run for mayor of Bacolod. Leonardia said he refused to elaborate further on how Golez got the endorsement of those barangay chiefs who also signed a manifesto endorsing his bid.

On the claims of Golez that the mayor has 93 cases in the Ombudsman, Leonardia said maybe he was talking of all the cases filed against me but he did not mention the several cases that were dismissed. Even statistics will show that almost all cases filed with the Ombudsman are a form of harassment. And a very small percentage of that will go up to the Sandigan because a number of them are harassment cases.

Leonardia said all cases that were filed against him were dismissed because the accusations against them had no basis. Recently, there was a case involving the MassKara Festival funds that were also dismissed. The vice mayor and some councilors were also included in the case and again the Ombudsman ruled that there was nothing illegal about that. That is the same trend that has been happening with all the cases that have been filed against us.

Leonardia said he was even the one informing the people during the campaign that many cases had been filed against him by his political opponents. But this is not an indication of any wrongdoing but it is an indication of the kind of people his political opponents are. And the people had relied on us over these years – 2004, 2007 and 2010. All cases were dismissed and did not even touch first base.

I have a very reliable source in Malacañang who told me that Golez is trying to have me suspended. On September 5, he tried to approach people in Malacañang. Maybe it is his habit or nature of spreading misinformation because he thought he is still the spokesman of former President Arroyo.

Moroever, Leonardia thanked the Nationalist People’s Coalition national hierarchy for that big endorsement we got from them by being named the official candidates of the NPC in the 2013 elections.

Leonardia said it comes at a time when the filing of the certificates of candidacy is fast approaching and I am sure it was an act of the NPC national hierarchy in response to what they saw and what they know about the real situation in Bacolod.

Recently, 51 barangay captains and 58 Sangguniang Kabataan chairmen expressed their trust and confidence on Leonardia and after Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson and all the NPC incumbent and former councilors likewise endorsed him.