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GENUINE Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino
“Koko” Pimentel 3rd and his father, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.,
belittled the graft charge filed against them by the former lawyer
of ex-Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano before the Office of
the Ombudsman.
The Pimentels wrote The Manila
Times saying the complainant, Ed Tamondong, “is acting out of
malice and ignorance of the facts.”
The Pimentels called
Tamondong’s complaint an act of political vengeance for not
supporting Tamondong’s candidacy for mayor of Cagayan de Oro in
2002.
Tamondong alleged in his
complaint that the Pimentels used government resources, specifically
Senator Pimentel’s franking privilege, to campaign for Koko and
the Genuine Opposition candidates.
In his letter to The Times,
Senator Pimentel said it was not he or his son, who mailed letters
from his office.
“In my office letters are
mailed under the authority of a director in my office that is under
instruction that my franking privilege should be used only on
accordance with law,” he said.
The senator said on learning that
“some letters were mailed under my franking privilege that could
be misconstrued as a misuse of it, I immediately had a fast
investigation conducted.”
He said he found that “the
director in my office in charge of among other things mailing
matters, used his own discretion of mailing the questioned letters
under my franking privilege.”
The senator explained that being
“a nonlawyer” the director “believed that the contents of the
questioned letters were not purely partisan or political. In fact,
parts of the bulk of the letters stressed the need to prevent dagdag/bawas,
the need to safeguard the integrity of the election process… the
Rule of Law” which are “matters essential to the maintenance of
clean elections.”
These are “fundamental to good
governance…things that I, as a senator, consider it a part of my
duty to share with my constituents,” Pimentel said.
He said the director resigned
“and I accepted his resignation.”
Pimentel said Tamondong’s
accusation is but part of the administration’s dirty tactics.
The young Pimentel said that he
and his father had been helping Tamondong with his campaign in 2004,
until the PDP Laban decided to endorse somebody else.
“He should not be angry with me
since I was not part of the negotiations in 2004 for his decision to
run,” he said.
One of the letters was sent to
Judge Bonifacio Maceda Jr. of Branch 275 of the Las Piñas Regional
Trial Court.
The letter is written on the
Senate stationery of the senator and bears his photo and that of his
son. It contains the message, “May I beg you to support and vote
for my son, Aquilino Pimentel for senator in the May election . . .
kindly vote for Pimentel and his colleagues in the coalition, GO, in
your ballot.”
The letter and the envelope were
presented by Tamondong as evidence.
Koko Pimentel questioned why he
is being dragged into the issue against his father when he is not
even a member of his father’s staff.
Asked whom he thought was behind
the move, Pimentel said: “Tamondong is the lawyer of Garci. Who
now is the financier of Garci that keeps him financially stable for
past services?”
Tamondong, a native of Cagayan de
Oro like the Pimentels, accused the father and son of conspiring to
violate three laws—Republic Act 3019, the Antigraft and Corrupt
Practices Act; RA 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards
for Public Officials and Employees; and RA 6650, the Franking
Privilege Law.
Tamondong was the secretary of
the Commission on Appointments when Senator Pimentel was Senate
president.
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