ILOILO City – Former provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada cried foul over his arrest last Friday evening at his house in Pavia, Iloilo.
“Masakit ang pagtrato sang pulis sa akon. Ginplanuhan gid nila ako. Ngaa nga pusasan gid ako?” lamented Mejorada, who was still confined at St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo yesterday.
Mejorada’s blood pressure shot up following his apprehension over five counts of libel around 6:30 p.m. on June 7.
Iloilo Provincial Police Office’s Intelligence Section head Major Jonathan Pinuela and the Pavia police nabbed Mejorada on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Victorino Oliveros-Manibas Jr.
Pinuela said they received the warrant on June 6. But since they could not locate Mejorada, they were able to serve it Friday.
He added that handcuffing a subject of an arrest warrant is part of their standard operating procedures (SOP).
“We never violated any law. Need gid namon i-handcuff ang mga wanted or mga arrested persons as part sang SOP namon,” Pinuela stressed yesterday. “Mayo gani wala namon siya ginpahapa as part sang procedure kon paano arestuhon ang wanted kay naluoy ako sa iya kay may edad na.”
He added that he is ready to face legal consequences should Mejorada opt to file charges against them.
“That is part of our job. But as far as I know I never violated any law in arresting him,” said Pinuela.
Mejorada posted a P50,000 bail bond yesterday.He was still waiting for the doctor’s advice for his release from the hospital.
Last month, the Iloilo City Prosecutor’s Office recommended the filing of cyber libel charges against Mejorada, a critic of Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr.
On Jan. 23 this year, Defensor accused him of violating Republic Act 10175 (Cyber Crime Prevention Act of 2012).
Defensor cited five Facebook posts of Mejorada on Sept. 26, Oct. 1, Nov. 15, and Nov. 20, 2018 where he was called corrupt and other similar accusations.
“I felt humiliated, embarrassed and at the same time angry” over Mejorada’s Facebook posts,” Defensor said.
In his complaint, Defensor stated that Mejorada started attacking him when Cong. Ferjenel Biron (4th District) announced he would run for governor against Cong. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. (3rd District), the governor’s son.
In his Sept. 26 Facebook post, Mejorada alleged that Defensor “used millions and millions of pesos in DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) funds to buy votes in the May 2013 elections.”
He also wrote that the governor was mad at him for so-called exposés “because his bubble armor disguising him as clean and honest was pricked and burst.”
In another post made on Oct. 1, Mejorada repeated his accusation against Defensor on the DAP funds, asserting that the governor “misused and misappropriated” them during the 2013 elections.
Mejorada, in the same post, wrote that Defensor refused to address the DAP issue “by turning a deaf ear…hoping that his supposed clean image will allow his son to survive election day.”
“As he refuses to confront the issue head-on, he has shown that his corruption runs so deeply that he won’t even confess to his sins,” Mejorada wrote about Defensor.
In a separate post on Oct. 1, Mejorada claimed Defensor had been caught red-handed to have misappropriated public funds to buy votes in 2013 but, he added, the governor refused to admit and to apologize to the people.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 15 Mejorada posted on Facebook that Defensor violated the ban on the disbursement of public funds during the 2013 election campaign period by paying the contractor of the Dumangas-Balabag Provincial Road on April 30, 2013.
“Defensor’s dirty politics continues to be unmasked. This guy plays with disregard for the law and rules and regulations. He is also a dishonorable man,” Mejorada wrote.
Five days later, Mejorada alleged on Facebook he received word from a friend that “old man” Defensor had now become “the laughingstock in the cafeteria of the Iloilo Capitol!”
Mejorada added: “I guess that’s what Defensor gets for pretending to be clean and honest when in truth, he is corrupt to the core.”/PN
