Mayor's Wife files Libel vs. NIA Personalities

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BINMALEY – Mayor Samuel Rosario said his wife Lorna Grace has filled a criminal libel suit against personalities whom he said  maliciously implicated his wife on an alleged corruption scandal at the National Irrigation Administration.

Rosario said his spouse, deputy administrator for finance and administration of NIA,  filed a written defamation case against the officials of the NIA Employees Association of the Philippines (NIAEASP) and other three private groups, for maliciously imputing her in a corruption scandal.

“How can my wife be involved with that where she is not involved in the nitty-gritty of the engineering details of the project?” Rosario said.

Rosario said a similar case has been filed in Bicol by Deputy Administrator for Engineering and Operation Modesto Membreve against the same personalities after they published at the national dailies a manifesto they sent to President Aquino assailing him and Lorna Grace.

 

Binmaley Mayor Sam Rosario (Extreme Right)

According to the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, if one of the offended parties  in libel case is a public officer whose office is in the City of Manila at the time of the commission of the offense, the action shall be filed in the Court of First Instance (Regional Trial Court) of the City of Manila, or of the city or province where the libelous article is printed and first published.

In case such public officer does not hold office in the City of Manila, the action shall be filed in the Court of First Instance (RTC) of the province or city where he held office at the time of the commission of the offense or where the libelous article is printed and first published

Lorna Grace Rosario and Membrere are residents of Pangasinan and Bicol, respectively.

A photo copy of the reports of the Operation Audit Team of IAS furnished by Mayor Rosario to this papers showed that one of the accusations hurled by the groups against Rosario was she ordered to pay the contractor 50 percent of the P6,856,014.70 of the project in South Cotabato - Sarangani that was only 4.83 percent accomplished.

But the investigation body found lack of strong evidence to incriminate Rosario and Membrere for violation of the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

 

 In an affidavit, Jose Luis R.Escalona, said he manipulated the superimposition of the rubber stamp of receipt and notations of the document to make it appear that the deputy administrators had a hand in the dealings.

According to Mayor Rosario, some of the respondents on the libel case have been profusely asking apology from his wife.