By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. has filed a counter-affidavit against the seven counts of libel filed against him by businessman Crispin Chua.
In his affidavit filed with the City Prosecutor’s Office, Gamboa said Chua, operator of Bacolod Northbound Terminal, committed “violations upon violations” of the memorandum of agreement between him and the city government.
The terminal “subverts the safety and convenience of the people,” he said. It is “unpaved, with discordant temporary structures” and is “constructed like pig pens full of mud during wet season and dust during dry season.”
Gamboa said Chua started his transport terminal business with a minimal capital of P62,500 but promised to build a P7-million terminal building.
“With the exposure of these violations, from Chua’s incorporation papers to the Office of the Building Official, to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, to the barangay, the violation goes on and on — Mr. Chua goes to the bar of justice with such unclean hands and therefore must not be allowed to profit from his own wrongdoing,” he said.
Gamboa is the principal author of City Ordinance 461 of 2008, which created the Bacolod Northbound Terminal.
He said the businessman “did not present any corroborative affidavit” to support his claims. “What I read (from his libel complaint) were self-serving allegations,” he said.
Gamboa said Chua’s accusation that the councilor had an interest in running the transport terminal was “unfounded.”
He said the “constructive criticisms” he aired on the operation of the terminal aim to educate the public about “a matter of public interest” and were untainted with malice.
“It is my primary duty … to ensure that the establishment and operation of the Bacolod Northbound Terminal conforms to [the laws] and that any contract related thereto must be in consonance with justice and fair play,” he stressed./PN
