Gwen cries ‘political harassment’

GARCIA (FILE PHOTO)

Cebu third district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia was unfazed by the graft charges filed against her before the Sandiganbayan by the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged anomalous Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) project that was built for nearly P900 million in 2006.

Garcia, in a phone interview with Cebu Daily News yesterday, said she would not allow the alleged “political harassment” initiated by her opponents to distract her from campaigning in Cebu’s third district, where she is seeking reelection.

“If this were a level playing field, they would know that my opponent is way behind in surveys,” said Garcia in an apparent reference to her challenger for the congressional seat, Cebu Provincial Board Member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez (Liberal Party).

Garcia, who is running under One Cebu-United Nationalist Alliance, accused her opponents of political harassment because the indictment was issued in the middle of election season.

The congresswoman, however, said that her opponents’ political stunt might even be to her advantage.

“Cebuanos aren’t stupid. They can see the gimmick behind all this,” Garcia said.

She added that her rivals employed the same tactics in 2012, when she was suspended for grave abuse of authority during her last term as governor.

Garcia said this tactic might even backfire on her opponents because people were naturally inclined to root for the “underdog.”

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, running mate of Gov. Hilario Davide III (chairman, LP Cebu), denied Garcia’s allegations of political harassment.

She said the indictment was only a logical progression, considering that the Ombudsman had previously resolved the administrative aspect of the graft case filed against Garcia and 10 others involving the CICC. The 10 former Capitol officials were found guilty but Garcia, who won as Cebu third district representative, was cleared due to the Aguinaldo Doctrine that exonerated elective officials of pending administrative cases once elected into office.

Magpale said it would make sense that the resolution of the criminal aspect of the case would follow.

“It’s a long-standing case. It just so happened that it moved forward only now,” the vice governor said.

Sanchez, for her part, said Garcia could not just say it was political harassment since her brother Winston Garcia, who is running for governor under One Cebu against Davide, was cleared of a graft case by the Sandiganbayan only last week.

“You can’t call that political harassment. If it were, what would you call the dismissal of Winston’s case before the Sandiganbayan weeks ago?,” Sanchez said.

The Sandiganbayan dismissed the graft charges against Winston, the former Government Security Insurance System (GSIS) chairman, over the alleged anomalous awarding of the GSIS eCard project in 2004 due to lack of merit.

Sanchez said she could not comment further about the CICC case because she was not in office yet when the events involved in the case happened.

However, she said Gwen’s “predicament now was something she brought upon herself and she needs to face it.”

Sanchez also said that she was more concerned about how the provincial government could develop the CICC now that the case against Garcia and  others has moved forward.

“When we move forward, I would suggest to the governor that we start entertaining proposals to maximize the CICC,” she said.

In his inaugural address in 2013, Davide called the CICC a “monument of corruption” and vowed not to spend a single centavo to fix it after it was damaged by a typhoon and earthquake in the same year.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has proposed to turn the facility into a trade expo center for furniture makers in Mandaue City.

The Capitol and Mandaue City government estimated the rehabilitation costs at P297 million and submitted it to the agency last year. Until now, DTI has not given feedback on this matter.

Even before that, the Mandaue City government also expressed interest in buying the province-owned structure since it stands on land under the city’s jurisdiction.