BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – Ex-congressman Augusto Syjuco Jr. of Iloilo’s 2nd District charged President Benigno Aquino III before the Office of the Ombudsman with the crime of libel.
“The Constitution says that no person is above the law. The President is a person; he is not above the law. We have a government of men,” Syjuco told Panay News.
He said he was degraded by Aquino’s “personal attacks” in the President’s 2013 State of the Nation Address (SONA), said Syjuco.
It took him long to charge the President because, Syjuco claimed, he was expecting the letters he wrote to Aquino “would make him see the light.”
“I gave him all the time in the world to realize his mistake, his wrongdoing,” said Syjuco.
The former congressman claimed he wrote Aquino “about six letters” between 2010 and 2012.
His children, too, have been affected.
“(They) started distancing themselves from the family name not because they believe the accusation unjustly hurled at their father but because the presidential attack put them in a position where they have to answer questions from friends and acquaintances alike,” Syjuco explained.
In his SONA last year, President Aquino accused Syjuco of overpricing equipment purchases during his stint as director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
He claimed that Syjuco authorized the purchase of an overpriced incubator jar which cost P15,375 and a dough cutter at P48,507.
The equipment should have been priced at only P149 each while the dough cutter, P120, according to the President.
“Furthermore, the President ridiculed me by saying I would finally learn to count when I have my day in court to answer for charges files against me,” Syjuco said.
Aquino’s accusations made the public perceive him as being a “thief,” the former congressman lamented.
“No one person can approve the projects. The projects were approved by the TESDA Board, as mandated by law. Yet out of the more than 10 board members who unanimously approved the projects, President Aquino singled me out in his SONA,” Syjuco said.
Upon receiving reports of overprice, Syjuco said he stopped the amounts payable.
“I did not pay it. It was not paid,” he insisted./PN
