Ormoc mayor belittles campaign for his recall

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — City Mayor Eric Codilla has confirmed reports about a group initiating a signature campaign petitioning for a recall against him, but he belittled this as one bound to fail.

The mayor said that a barangay chairman, allied with the opposition, had apologized to him after signing the "petition" document allegedly upon the prodding of people known to be associated with a congresswoman in Leyte.

The group cited loss of confidence and based their petition on the Commission on Audit's Annual Audit Report (AAR) covering the period 2006 - 2009, but the barangay chief told the mayor that he did not know the contents of the document at the time.

He later requested for a copy of the petition and gave this to Codilla, while promising to execute an affidavit revoking his signature from the document because he was convinced that it was false accusation.

"Ngil-ad kaayo ka sa panan-aw namo (before), apan tungod sa imong walay pag duhaduha og tabang sa mga proyekto sa barangay bisan tua ako sa pikas nakita nako ang imong pag ka sinsero sa panerbisyo", he said of Codilla.

The petitioners interpreted the AAR as indicating graft and corruption, malversation of funds and plunder by billions of pesos in the Codilla administration, and they accused the mayor of using the funds to cheat in the previous elections.

Codilla explained to The FREEMAN that part of COA's mandate was to cite discrepancies in its audit report, and mistakes are bound to happen in the report because an LGU might have valid reasons over some items, which were perceived to have discrepancies.

Since the AAR is a separate document, the LGU's response is usually not attached to it if somebody asks for a copy, thus, it is easily misinterpreted and or utilized to mean anomalies, he said.

"For the case of Ormoc, the COA report never used the words graft, corruption, malversation and plunder which the petitioners have been trying to imply. It only cited procedural matters on the accounting department, not illegal disbursements," said Codilla.

Codilla further assured the public that the accounting, treasurer and budget offices have been cooperating with COA on this matter. "One proof of this was the voluntary resignation of the city administrator and treasurer in the Bids and Awards Committee, following the recommendation of COA," he said.

Codilla laughed off the petition saying that it will not prosper. "The petitioners deceived the people by convincing them to sign but using the forms for the "Conditional Cash Transfer program."

He ruled out suspicion that it was Macoy Larrazabal, a defeated mayoral candidate, who maybe behind the recall move, but believed that it was a representative of the Lower House who only wanted to get even with him.