ILOILO City – “What kind of public service can you give when you have many cases before the Ombudsman?” Candidate for city mayor Dr. Pacita Gonzalez directed this question to her rival, Cong. Jerry Treñas during a candidate’s forum on Saturday. The question did not sit well with the congressman.
He threatened to walk out.
“Are there no rules? If there’s no order, there’s no reason for me to stay in this debate,” a visibly flustered Treñas complained.
Observers of Saturday night’s forum held at the University of the Philippines Visayas – Iloilo City campus said Treñas was “napikon” (lost his cool).
Raising his voice as he lost his composure, Treñas defended himself specifically in the graft case he is facing at the Sandiganbayan filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.
When Treñas was mayor, according to the Ombudsman, the city government released funds to the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) sometime in December 2003 and January 2004.
Treñas should not have authorized the release of the fund – P500,000 Priority Development Assistance Fund of Sen. Loren Legarda coursed through the city government – as the IPC was not an accredited non-government organization of the city government, averred the Ombudsman. Treñas denied any wrongdoing but was preventively suspended by the Sandiganbayan for 90 days beginning January 2018.
Gonzalez, wife of the late Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., also pointed out a Commission on Audit’s (COA) adverse report on the city government’s handling of funds during Treñas’ term as mayor.
“In your nine years as mayor, you have P8 billion in unliquidated funds found by COA,” Gonzalez told Treñas.
Gonzalez was referring to the Request for Assistance (RAS) addressed to the Ombudsman in November 2012 seeking clarification on what happened to the COA’s findings.
As alleged in the RAS submitted to the Ombudsman, COA found the following “adverse” findings on city government finances during Treñas’ administration:
* P1.4 billion in 2002
* P584.1 million in 2003
* P863.4 million in 2004
* P1.2 billion in 2005
* P1.1 billion in 2006
* P918.3 million in 2007
* P1 billion in 2008
* P587.4 million in 2009
* P1 billion in 2010.
“Please consider this as a formal Request for Assistance in our hope that through the Office of the Ombudsman, we would be able to clarify before the public what has happened, if any, on the stated COA findings,” read part of the RAS addressed to then Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol.
As of this writing, it was unclear what action the Ombudsman took on the RAS.
Observers of Saturday night’s candidates’ forum held at the University of the Philippines Visayas – Iloilo City campus noticed Treñas getting irritated when Gonzalez raised this issue.
They thought the congressman would be walking out of the debate.
There was no love lost between Treñas and Gonzalez who used to be allies when the congressman was the city mayor from 2001 to 2010.
In the 2010 elections, Treñas surprised everyone when he severed his political ties with his political patron Raul Sr. (Gonzalez’s husband), and ran for congressman against the Gonzalez couple’s son, then Iloilo City’s reelectionist congressman Raul Gonzalez Jr.
This move of Treñas angered the Gonzalezes./PN
