Mayor to File P5M Damage Suit vs Lady Reporter

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BAYAMBANG – The mayor here will file a five million pesos civil damage suit against a media woman after she accused in a video the former in a string of anomalies in this town’s local government.

The video that became viral for more than a week as of press time was posted by Janice Hidalgo - Berot, a perennial critic of this 77 villages’ town mayor Cezar T. Quiambao.

Quimbao told this writer that it was the strategy of his legal team to file first a civil moral damage suit against Hidalgo to be followed after the conclusion of the civil case with a criminal case cyber libel.

P5M CIVIL CASE - Bayambang, Pangasinan Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao (left) and embattled reporter Janice Hidalgo. Quiambao told media men in a press conference that he will be sueing Hidalgo with a five million pesos civil suit after the latter maligned him in a video she sent at Facebook that became viral.

Hidalgo questioned the boundary markers to be built by the Quiambao Administration in boundaries that separate this town to the municipalities of Malasiqui, Basista, and Bautista all in Pangasinan and the town of Camiling in the province of Tarlac.

She said these projects were funded by a P3.5 million loan contracted by the local government here with a private bank.

“Sa Accomplishment Report ng loan ay binalita o nilathala, tapos na ang Calvo Bridge’s arch sa halagang P1.2 million. Pero kahit anong dictionary kahit anong version ng Google Search, and dalawang poste na ito o marker gawa sa metal cladding hindi pasok o maging arko kaya ang halagang P1.2 million para sa dalawang markers lang ay sadyang napakalaki,” she stressed in Tagalog.

Hidalgo mocked the cheap, thin, and damaged galvanize sheet markers used by the Quiambao Administration on the areas.

She assailed too the P8 million pair of traffic lights hanging above the commercial district here.

“Sa mga traffic systems sa karatig bayan. Sa lungsod ng Dagupan halimbawa ang traffic management system na naikabit ng 2016 nagkakahalaga ng P8,594, 560. Pero binubuo ito tatlumpung anim (36) na traffic signal lights, dalawamput anim (26) sets na pedestrian lanterns sa halagang P8, 594, 560 kumpara sa nakakabit na P8 million sa bayan ng Bayambang”.

Hidalgo cited too the alleged anomalies on the construction of the former Covered Court here but is now called Event Center.

Quiambao refuted Hidalgo’s allegations when he said that the funds for the boundary markers have not yet been released by the bank.

He zeroed too on Hidalgo’s incredible comparison to those countless traffic lights and several sets of pedestrian lanterns in Dagupan City that cost P8,594,560 versus the two traffic light systems here.

“Those traffic lights here cost roughly P4.5 million, the rest of the sums were used for the beautification of the pedestrian lanes and the surroundings of the area”.

Quiambao told reporters that he will file the damage suit in Manila against the malicious imputations of Hidalgo.

The civil suit will inconvenience the respondent as she will spend tens of thousands of pesos for the acceptance and per appearance fees of her lawyer and her transportation costs of travelling in Dagupan City and Manila vice versa to attend the hearings of the case.

“Probably she has her patron to pay the tab for her lawyer,” the billionaire mayor cited in a press conference he called at his swanky house here that was stringently protected by a bevy of private security guards where some held the front control belts of K-9s bomb snipping dogs at his swanky mansion here. The conference was  attended by more than two dozens media practitioners in the province of Pangasinan.

Quiambao and his lawyer mull to add a criminal case of extortion against Hidalgo after she told provincial board candidate Darwina Sampang at the Lenox Hotel in Dagupan City that for the latter to tell the mayor that she would delete the damaging video at Facebook in exchanged of P1.8 million's Starex Van.

Sampang and Quiambao’s actress wife Mary Claire "Niña" José - Quiambao are closed friends.

“Ang hiling niya po sabi niya magkano iyang Starex mo, madam? Sabi ko ten years ago pa iyan at P1.9 million hinuhulugan ko iyan sa Producer Bank Manaoag. Gusto ko, sabi niya, diyan sa Hyundai. “Gusto ko walang papeles wala akong pipirmahan, after maibigay iyong Hyundai nakapangalan sa akin e-erase niya daw iyong video,” Sampang narrated to reporters.
She said to show that she did not give Hidalgo a bundle  of monies she wanted that the management of the hotel furnished her a footage of the security camera where she and Hidalgo were conversing at the table.

 Bombo Radyo- Dagupan reporter Edmund Abubo told this writer that Hidalgo, in a radio interview, disclosed to him that she and a policeman got a copy of the CCTV footage of the duo at the Lenox Restaurant where a check was allegedly given by Sampang to her.

Abubo said that Hidalgo even filed a police blotter that the mayor threatened her through Sampang. 

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