ILOILO City – The signature campaign against Panay Electric Company (PECO) submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate was littered with forgeries, according to a manifesto released by a group that claimed to have been tapped for the campaign.
“Unknown to the public, almost all of these signatures were fake and prepared overnight, and by only a handful of people,” read a part of the group’s manifesto.
One member of this group which called itself “Amazona Brigade” was Mercedez Nava, former aide of Dr. Pacita Gonzalez, wife of the late Justice secretary and congressman Raul Gonzalez Sr. She traced the anti-PECO campaign to Councilor Joshua Alim, a staunch critic of the sole power distributor in this city.
If Nava were to be believed, Alim initially sought to gather at least 300 signatures from 180 barangays and asked the help of Presidential Consultant for Western Visayas Jane Javellana.
Javellana, in turn, sought the help of Gonzalez’s daughter Dr. Marigold Gonzalez, through a certain Pingky Longno, said Nava.
According to the manifesto, two days prior to a hearing on PECO’s application for franchise renewal (no date was stated) in Congress, the group was tasked to gather signatures.
“Within the two-day timetable given to us, we could not realistically secure the required number of valid signatures; acting upon the direct and express instruction given to us…we prepared the signatures of fictitious persons to make it appear there were thousands,” part of the manifest to read.
The group claimed there were over 24,000 fictitious signatures and only around 3,500 were genuine.
“Certainly, if these forgeries were exposed earlier, the mind-set of the public would not have been manipulated; if the House of Representatives and the Senate knew that they were being fed with lies, they may have looked at things differently,” according to the manifesto.
Congress voted to give the power distribution franchise in Iloilo City to MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power). PECO’s application for franchise renewal, on the other hand, is not moving in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Franchises.
“The fake signatures were used to twist the truth,” according to the manifesto, “to satisfy their own selfish reasons.”
DENIAL
Councilor Joshua Alim dismissed as baseless the manifesto’s allegation.
“It is not true nga fake (signatures),” he told Panay News.
Alim also said Mercedez Nava had a personal conflict with the Gonzalezes.
He expressed confidence that the allegation won’t result to the reversal of Congress’ decision to award the power distribution franchise to MORE Power.
Javellana, on the other hand, described Mercedez Nava’s claim as “indi salapakon” (not worth paying attention to).
“Paano ‘ya ma-quantify ang ginatawag nga fake kay isa man lang sya kag Mandurriao lang sya nga area. We are talking of the whole Iloilo City and 180 barangays,” said Javellana.
She also claimed, just like Alim, that Nava had a tiff with Gonzalez.
“Indi salapakon…gapangita lang sya sang media mileage ‘ya,” said Javellana.
The signature campaign had no bearing at all in Congress’ decision to award the power distribution franchise to another company, she stressed./PN
