Mayor denies getting money from governor

CEBU, Philippines — Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Remollo vehemently denied insinuations he received millions of pesos from suspended Governor Roel Degamo for his legal advises that helped the latter do away earlier with politically-motivated charges.

Remollo said Degamo has a team of very competent lawyers defending the governor in any court, and that his contribution came only as a partymate of the governor, and not as a lawyer.

The mayor admitted though that it was only with Degamo at the helm that Dumaguete had experienced all-out support in all its undertakings, projects, social services, and sports activities, all of which had sync with the plans and programs of the provincial government.

On the contrary, “the politicians behind Degamo’s preventive suspension are billionaires and that is a public knowledge,” said Remollo.

He said there are people who could not just admit that an elective office is supposed to be filled in by an elected official, and could not be done with the filing of cases in court. Otherwise, “if that is the case, then we might as well resort to filing cases without the benefit of an election,” he said.

Remollo issued this statement in lambasting the vindictiveness of defeated politicians by suing Degamo in court, causing the latter to be slapped with a 90-day preventive suspension, for implementing projects to save lives and properties following the devastation of Sendong in 2012.

The mayor called on those who want to be in office to prepare for the next elections and not to invent cases against the incumbent, just to disrupt his work because people will not like it. “After the elections, they expect us to work together, regardless of political colors, and that the mandate of the people should be respected,” he said.

Remollo said that if the whole amount of the calamity fund was downloaded to the province, the diking system of Banica River would have been completed and would not result in heavy damage to the rest of the boulder dikes during the recent floods.