I am writing to refute the falsehoods in Sarah Esguerra’s letter (“‘Unholy influence’ on Ombudsman?” Opinion, 4/14/04), where she made it appear that former Bacolod City mayor Evelio Leonardia escaped indictment at the Sandiganbayan on the many cases that have been filed against him because he wielded some sort of “unholy influence” with the Ombudsman. In the same breath, she defends her padrino, Monico Puentevella, now Bacolod City mayor, as having been unjustly charged before the Sandiganbayan on the questionable procurement of several overpriced IT packages at an astonishing P400,000 per unit (as reported by the Commission on Audit or COA) for public schools in Bacolod, using his PDAF allocations when he was still congressman for Bacolod City.
Esguerra’s story line is a pack of lies she has long been peddling to the media. Failing to get the publicity mileage she wanted, she repackaged these lies into a letter to the editor, making herself appear as an ordinary Bacolod City resident.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Esguerra is a loyal supporter of Puentevella who has awarded her the plum position of executive assistant in the Bacolod City government—apparently as a reward for her past and present services as Puentevella’s “gunner,” whose main job, apparently, is to throw mud at former Bacolod City mayor Leonardia in the media and to file those numerous cases against him in the Ombudsman.
If most of the cases she has filed against Leonardia have been dismissed by the Ombudsman for lack of merit or lack of probable cause, it’s only because Leonardia was able to credibly defend himself with the truth and to clearly refute all the charges against him. Esguerra should stop casting doubt on the Ombudsman’s integrity just because she failed to make her politically motivated charges stick.
Esguerra is also wrong to say that Puentevella has only one case against him before the Ombudsman. It is a known fact that the Philippine Sports Commission filed a case in the Ombudsman against Puentevella for his questionable handling of P50.5 million in government funds for the 2005 SEA Games in Bacolod (Criminal Case No. OMB-V-C-14-0092). The funds were allegedly deposited into Puentevella’s personal bank
account and until now have not been fully accounted for to the satisfaction of the COA.
Another illegality under investigation is his alleged involvement in the infamous “fertilizer scam” while still a congressman.
In her letter, Esguerra blamed the Ombudsman for indirectly causing the death of Puentevella’s coaccused in the IT procurement case. Esguerra claimed that the coaccused suffered from depression when the case was elevated to the Sandiganbayan and this led to his demise. In her zealous defense of her boss, Esguerra should have been decent enough to avoid dragging the name of this person already
resting in peace. Such disrespect for the dead is inexcusable. She should have also read the defense memorandum of Puentevella in his IT scam case on how he “washed his hands” in a desperate attempt to save his own skin.
—JOSELITO T. BAYATAN,
political affairs officer
and counsel for
former mayor now
Rep. Evelio R. Leonardia