CANDABA - Former Mayor Rene Maglanque on Tuesday assailed former Mayor Jerry Pelayo for involving him in the plunder case filed by the latter regarding various infrastructure projects built in this town which are allegedly "irregular and substandard."
Recently, Pelayo together with former Vice-Mayor Daniel Gallardo filed a joint criminal and administrative complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation against Maglanque, Fourth District Representative Juan Pablo "Rimpy" Bondoc, Department of Public Works and Highways Region III Director Antonio Molano, Jr. and the agency's department heads as well as officers of private contractor Edd Mari Construction, Ferdstar and Northern Builders.
Pelayo pointed at the P100 million Malisic River Project, the Maasim Dam/River Project Candaba-San Miguel Road Widening Project, Arayat-Apalit Setback Levee, Pulong Plazan Barit Road, Bomba Bridge, Mandasig Revetment and Candaba-Baliuag Road and other unfinished projects which are allegedly "useless, worthless projects, whose only objective in its construction is to milk money out of public funds."
However, Maglanque asserted that all infrastructure projects of DPWH in Candaba town followed legal processes such as public consultation, bidding and awarding and implemented as per plans and specifications set by the public works department.
"Bakit makaabe ku? Deng projects a sasabyan na, ing DPWH ing megimplement at alang linub a pondo keng munisipyo. Besides, deng project a ren, atyu la ngan at agagamit at apapakinabangan dala deng CandabeƱos (Why am I involved in this case? All the projects he said were all funded and implemented by the DPWH and no funds were directed to the local government. Besides, all these projects are existing and are beneficial to CandabeƱos)," Maglanque stressed.
Maglanque also assailed the allegations of Pelayo that the projects are useless and worthless, saying the municipality, particularly the Poblacion area did not experience major flooding in the past four typhoons due to the existence of the infrastructures.
He added that all projects of the DPWH implemented during his term in Candaba are either finished or are still ongoing.
He also questioned the basis of Pelayo in his statement that said projects were irregular and substandard since all of the projects are still functional and intact except for the Bomba Bridge which was rehabilitated under the latter's watch in 2004.
"At kung makanyan ing issue na, atin lang contractor deng projects a sasabyan. Ing public works ing pakisabyan na (And if that is his issue, he should talk to the public works [department] since those projects have respective contractors)," he stressed.
Nonetheless, Maglaque said he will face the case charged against him and prove that Pelayo's accusations are all baseless and were just made to draw attention to himself.