LRay urges House ethics panel to probe Fuentebella

MANILA, Philippines - Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte yesterday urged the House committee on ethics and privileges to open a formal inquiry on Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella for allegedly amassing more than P80 million in ill-gotten wealth through the use of public funds in constructing road projects and structures located in his privately titled property.

Villafuerte said the ethics committee should immediately start the probe since Fuentebella, he alleged, “has already started tearing up one of the roads in an apparent effort to get rid of the evidence of his misuse of public funds.”

The feud between the governor and the Deputy Speaker started when the latter successfully pushed the approval in the House of Representatives of the creation of the new province of Nueva Camarines. The move would reduce the area governed by Villafuerte.

Villafuerte filed last Friday a plunder complaint against Fuentebella for allegedly appropriating public funds for his and his family’s benefit.

Fuentebella, who represents the third district of Camarines Sur, dismissed Villafuerte’s call and branded his allegations as “pure harassment.”

“I will respond to his allegations at the appropriate time and at the proper forum, if need be. But by asking the House ethics committee to also look into the complaints he already filed before the Ombudsman, he is engaged in forum-shopping and trial by publicity,” Fuentebella told The STAR.

“I would not be surprised if he also files his complaints before the courts to exact political vendetta on this representation for authoring a bill proposing the creation of Nueva Camarines,” he said.

Villafuerte alleged that among those constructed in Fuentebella’s properties were roads, a multi-purpose building, a view deck, a covered sports complex, and a seawall.