The governor of Zambales yesterday decried the filing of plunder charges against him before the Office of the Ombudsman which he described as recycled issues “meant to inflict collateral political damage.”
In a one-page statement distributed to reporters on the Ombudsman beat in Quezon City, Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane’s lawyer Ianela Jusi-Barrantes said the issues presented in the piecemeal charges filed by Consolidated Mines Inc. (CMI) against him are more personal and political rather than legal.
The camp of the governor pointed out that the complaint was just meant to inflict collateral political damage.
Jusi-Barrantes issued a stinging rebuke to private counsel Reynaldo Bagatsing after the latter filed a plunder case in connection with the operation of small-scale miners in Zambales to which the governor has given permits.
“It is unmistakable that grant of said small-scale mining permit (is) in contravention of Republic Act 7076, or the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991,” Bagatsing was quoted as saying in his eight-page complaint before the Ombudsman.
“Consistent with the style of Consolidated Mines Inc. (CMI) and its cohorts, the filing of yet another charge — this time for plunder against Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.— was first published in the media before the governor was even informed or officially furnished with a copy of the purported complaint,” Jusi- Barrantes said in the same statement.
She added: “The plunder charges, if one has actually been filed by a lawyer with no known connection with mining in Coto, Masinloc, Zambales, is nothing but a sequel (to) and offshoot of the charges filed by CMI in July 2012 against Governor Ebdane with the Ombudsman, which, interestingly, was similarly highlighted by full media coverage.”
Jusi-Barrantes said the allegations, as contained in the media reports were merely brought “in only new personalities.”
Ebdane’s lawyer also pointed out that the charges filed by CMI, which claims ownership of disputed mine tailings at the Coto Mines, “are more personal and political rather than legal.”
As such, “we will not glorify the charges, media coverage and all,” Jusi-Barrantes said.
“Instead, we will be answering all the allegations squarely in the proper forum, confident that the small-scale mining operations in Coto, Masinloc is valid and legal, contrary to the claims of our relentless oppositors,” Ebdane’s counsel said.
Jusi-Barrantes further said that as a lawyer herself, complainant Bagatsing should “know full well what plunder is and what evidence he has — if any — to prove it.”