Zambales guv’s camp decries plunder charges

IBA, Zambales -- The camp of Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane decried Tuesday allegations of a plunder case, saying it was a move to inflict collateral damage to the political career of the governor.

“The issues presented in the piecemeal charges filed by Consolidated Mines Inc. and its cohorts against Governor Hermogenes E. Ebdane are more personal and political rather than legal,” said lawyer Ianela Jusi-Barrantes, lawyer of Ebdane.

The plunder case was filed against the governor before the Ombudsman by private lawyer Reynaldo Bagatsing in connection with the operation of small-scale miners in Zambales to which the Ebdane has given permits.

“It is unmistakable that grant of said small-scale mining permit (is) in contravention of Republic Act 7076, or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991,” Bagatsing was quoted as saying in his eight-page complaint before the Ombudsman.

In a one-page statement to the media, Jusi-Barrantes said, however, that the complaint was only a demolition job intended to malign Ebdane.

“Consistent with the style of Consolidated Mines Inc. (CMI) and its cohorts, the filing of yet another charge -- this time for plunder against Zambales Governor Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr. -- was first published in the media before the governor was even informed or officially furnished with a copy of the purported complaint,” she said.

“The plunder charges, if one has actually been filed by a lawyer with no known connection with mining in Coto, Masinloc, Zambales, is nothing but a sequel (to) and offshoot of the charges filed by CMI in July 2012 against Governor Ebdane with the Ombudsman, which, interestingly, was similarly highlighted by full media coverage,” she added.

She also said that the allegations, as contained in the media reports, are “rehashed and recycled issues raising no new matters, but bringing in only new personalities.” (Anthony Bayarong/Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)