Ex-Mayor wants Binmaley Mayor Liable for Rap

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BINMALEY – After being alluded to mastermind the assassination plot of the mayor here, the former chief executive wanted Mayor Simplicio Rosario to be accountable on his libelous charge.

“You have publicly maligned me, wrongfully imputing as you did a serious crime against me. You were reckless. You were unjust. I will hold you to account for that,” former mayor Lorenzo Cerezo read a prepared statement to reporters last Wednesday at the conference hall of his hotel here after Mayor Rosario accused someone who has string of criminal cases to hatch an assassination job against him.

BARBS - Binmaley, Pangasinan Mayor Sam Rosario (left) and former Mayor Enzo Cerezo have been exchanging barbs these days.

In December 4 last year Rosario said that a closed circuit television (CCTV) footages and employees cited about two suspicious looking men looking for him inside the peripheries of the municipal hall and the Sangguniang Bayan (legislative building).

He reported this to the police that blotter it.

“Someone out there is out to silence me. Someone out there is dead serious and threatens us.  Someone out there is despairing to hide the truth in exchange for our life. Ako po ay tumatayo po ang aking balahibo. They pay one million pesos for my life. (Inaudible) kung saan po sila nakatira, ito po ay isang seryosong bagay na dapat...,” he said.

Rosario said that Cerezo is presently on liberty with a bail bond of eight hundred thousand pesos when the Sandiganbayan issued him warrant of arrests on violations of the Procurement Law and the Anti Graft & Corrupt Practices Act.

Cerezo's co-accused is Edwin Castillo who was the proprietor of MTAC Merchandising which entered into a contract with the local government unit here.

Rosario cited close friends of the accused interceded by confiding with him for the amicable solution of the case.

“Problem andiyan na ang trial. The fact na kinausap ako ng very close sa kanila na very close sa akin na huwag pa-atend iyong complainants. Dalawang tao lang iyan that is a mere indication na talagang hindi ko alam….wala akong pakialam diyan”.

Although evasive to directly incriminate Cerezo as the brain for the hit job, Rosario in a press conference here he called last January 23  that Cerezo faces 21 counts of violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Procurement Law at the Sandiganbayan in Manila.

Rosario said that his predecessor faces the criminal charges when an employee at the municipal hall sued him at the Sandiganbayan on illegal transaction to collect the garbage of the town.

“Ito ang sinasabi ko ang kanilang ka kontrata manugang nila,” Rosario said on Cerezo.

Two of the witnesses summoned by the court are former Municipal Accountant Gertrudes Reyes and Budget Officer Jeffrey delos Angeles. The complainant was Rosario’s former secretary.

Mr. Butch Merrera, one of the members of the three illustrious families here who attended the press conference, lambasted Rosario in the press conference of Cerezo on the poser from this newspaper of a probability that the master mind wanted to kill Rosario so the witnesses will withdraw from the cases.

“Pag namatay ba si mayor madi-dismiss ang kaso?” Merrera responded to question that a dead Mayor Rosario will be easy for the complainant and the witnesses to withdraw or weakened the criminal cases versus the accused former mayor.

“Iyong kaso niya na sinasabi niya e tingnan ninyo ang katangahan niya. He is dragging his witnesses. Imagine he is telling the people that the witnesses are under his influence. Kung namatay na siya ay mag-retract na iyong mga kuwan ang ibig niyang sabihin ay iyong mga witnesses niya ay puro convenience trying to satisfy the mayor. So half-truth half-baked and sinasabi nila sa korte,” Merrera said.

Cerezo told this paper that he has no intention to run for the mayorship in the 2019 election.

“Nabubuhay kaming mapayapa. Hindi kami nagsasalita. Magaling si Mayor Sam about five years hinde kami umiimik”.

The other members of the prominent families here who came to the succor of Cerezo and his wife Marissa were former mayor Roland Domalanta and  Former Bureau of Immigration Executive Wilfredo Poquiz.