Saturday, September 30, 2006 No politics in cases v. lawmaker: mayor By Albert B. Lacanlale
SAN Fernando City Mayor Oscar Rodriguez on Friday snagged accusations that the filing of falsification cases against former city mayor now Pampanga Third District Representative Rey Aquino by the City Government is tinged with political color.
Lashing at Aquino's claims, Rodriguez denied allowing the filing of cases as a result of the lawmaker's decision to run for mayor of the component city next year.
The falsification of public documents charges were filed by City Administrator Sonia Soto before the justice department.
These are apart from more serious charges of anomalies against Aquino, which are lobbied at the Office of the Ombudsman.
Rodriguez said the City Government, which is being swamped by contractors and suppliers who claim payments for transactions made during Aquino's administration, is not the present leadership that caused delays of the payments.
He said that as much as he wants to settle payments to the claimants, the City Government has to ascertain if the transactions made are all in accordance with the National Procurement Law. "We could be liable of malfeasance if we would not do anything about these suspicious transactions," he said.
"Since we assumed office in this city, we have been receiving reports that some camps among the suppliers and contractors are even accusing us of blocking the release of payments. But, we cannot pay for these supposed transactions because we don't even know if these are legal," Rodriguez said.
He said that although Soto is considered as one of his political strategists, her filing of charges against Aquino is borne out of the duties of a city administrator.
The legislator has expressed confidence that he will be proven innocent of the accusations hurled against him by Rodriguez's camp. "The accusations are without legal basis and primarily driven by sheer political motives," he said.
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