Saturday, June 16, 2007 ‘A pot calling kettle black’
BUSINESSMAN Cri-sologo Saavedra yesterday criticized the governor for putting political color in a complaint he filed against her before the Office of the President.
Saavedra said that Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia should instead answer the questions squarely, going by the merits of the case.
He wondered how he could be “riding on the speakership issue” when the complaint was lodged against her and not her father, newly elected Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district).
“Again, she is skirting the charges against her. By saying that I am riding on the speakership issue, she makes herself appear the victim without ever having to answer the valid questions that I’ve raised,” Saavedra said.
“Is she the one running for speakership of the House of Representatives? I have nothing against her father. Are she and her father one?” he posed.
Some supporters of the “media-savvy” governor, Saavedra said, are helping in the propaganda by calling him a “surrogate” of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The mayor and the governor aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on certain issues these days. (Related story, A1)
Saavedra said the complaint wasn’t a re-hash of the one already under a fact-finding investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
The new complaint, filed nine days ago before the Office of the President, was for alleged perjury committed when the governor supposedly misrepresented the actual cost of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) during an official forum conducted early last month.
Saavedra said the one before the anti-graft office was for the actual violations that the governor allegedly committed by authorizing variations from the approved contract, authorizing the conduct of selective bidding and heading direct negotiations with certain suppliers, and plunder.
“I did not even originally plan to file it with the Office of the President. What I had originally planned was to file it before the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. But when I called them, they told me to file it with the Office of the President instead because they do not have jurisdiction over elected officials like the governor,” he explained.
He was also told that the complaint would only be addressed there because it is actually the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) that would act on it.
“She should just answer the allegations instead of assigning politics in my motives. I am not a politician. I’ve never even been a barangay tanod. I do not do politicking like she is accusing me. She is the politician here,” Saavedra said.
He said the governor “may have described herself” in her “bald eagle” and “knight rider” comments before reporters, adding that it was she who “endorsed a completely spurious document” before the Social Security System (SSS).
The document was signed by one Luisa Pinili, who claimed to be employed in Saavedra’s Essence Spa, and accused the businessman of failing to remit her SSS contribution.
Saavedra said the governor’s action resulted in the visit of an SSS employee to his office.
He said he welcomes an investigation by the SSS, stressing that he never once had an employee by the name of Luisa Pinili and that the SSS can easily verify this.
