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Thursday, April 22, 2004
Santiago denies politics involved in Perdido probe
By KARLON N. RAMA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
LAWYER Edgar Gica barked up the wrong tree in blaming Ombudsman Director Virginia Santiago for an alleged smear campaign, led by the Capitol administration, that has linked his client, Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeña, to the Perdido Lex mess.
Santiago said she was nowhere near Cebu on Aug. 4, the day Gica said the documents were leaked, as she was in Southern Leyte with two associate investigators on a series of inspections that she capped with a visit to her hometown.
Not premature
“I didn’t know until I got back that the deputy ombudsman had already approved my recommendations. The memorandum wasn’t even returned to me because things like that go directly to the records (section) for further processing,” she said in an interview yesterday.
Santiago argued that even if the document was released to the press, it cannot be deemed premature because it bore the signature of Deputy Ombudsman Primo Miro.
“It would be premature if I released it because my recommendations still have to be approved by the deputy ombudsman who has the authority to modify or reverse it,” she said.
Miro, in a separate interview yesterday noon, said he will just forward Gica’s
letter-complaint against Santiago to Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo.
“It was addressed to him (Marcelo) in the first place. It was just coursed through me,” he said.
Gica, in his letter-complaint, accused Santiago of leaking an inter-office memorandum on the Perdido Lex case to the press, adding that it subjected his client to “ridicule and possible public censure.”
Advantage
The lawyer said the move gave Gwendolyn Garcia, Gov. Pablo Garcia’s daughter and his client’s political rival, “unwarranted benefits and advantage,” which is a violation of the anti-graft law.
Gica learned about the memorandum when a reporter of a local daily asked for his comment.
The anti-graft office conducted an inquiry on Perdido Lex Foundation after it made news that it got about P5 million from the vice governor’s discretionary funds without proper documents and accounting of the funds.
A twist in the case yesterday saw Osmeña’s chief of staff Willie Mulla asking the ombudsman to investigate the governor and Gwendolyn for malversation of funds through conspiracy in relation to Perdido Lex.
Meanwhile, Santiago said she will ask the members of the press to execute affidavits on whether the documents came from her.
“Atty. Gica should have researched the matter properly before filing his case,” Santiago said when interviewed yesterday morning. “The press can tell Atty. Gica just where they got their documents from. He should have asked,” she said.
Santiago minced no words in lambasting Gica for hinting in his letter that she was dabbling into politics by allowing herself to be used by Garcia’s camp in its campaign against Osmeña.
“That is absolutely untrue. Let Atty. Gica produce his evidence. I never involve myself in politics. I am not even from Cebu. I am from a very faraway town in Leyte.
I am not connected in any way to a politician. I entered government without political backing and have continued to stay in government still without one,” Santiago said.
(April 22, 2004 issue)
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