By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
MARIKINA CITY — Mayor Marcy Teodoro has questioned the timing of the complaint filed at the Office of the Ombudsman.
In the interview by the PaMaMariSan-Rizal Press Corps, Mayor Teodoro also asked for a fair investigation on the issue to clear his name.
According to Teodoro, the timing was questionable for him, especially so that it’s just a month away from the period of filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC).
The filing of the COC for the 2025 mid-term elections will be from Oct. 1-8, 2024.
“Secondly, we knew the complainant was also involved in politics hence the motive is becoming questionable. I’m really wondering that he has no personal knowledge. In fact, not even affected by the said issue. He has no direct knowledge and the information in his allegation are still to be verified,” he said.
Hence, the mayor said, “we are hoping with the preliminary investigation, it will be found that the allegation really has no basis and has no merit.”
Based on the latest audit, Teodoro said that the fund is still intact.
“In fact, it was appropriated through a local ordinance but we decided on a later time in the exercise in the abundance of cushion, we will not anymore implement the ordinance,” he said.
The mayor noted that the element in the utilization in the case of technical malversation is not attendant or present, hence you can say that technical malversation has utilization of fund.
“This is not a realignment. This is appropriation through an ordinance because this is an existing fund. This is an income of the city through the reimbursement of the Philhealth,” he said.
“Because we gave services which were reimbursed by PhilHealth as expenses of city because these are laboratory diagnostic examination which were availed by PhilHealth beneficiaries, paid by Philhealth,” he said .
“Because it was reimbursed by Philhealth, iit became an income. This went to the general fund,” he added.
The mayor noted that it was during the pandemic, *hence we are thinking for other services such as education, street lighting.”
The Covid-19 pandemic hit hard the country from March 15, 2020 until December 2022.
“Hence, the filing of the case is premature,” he said.
Teodoro has been Marikina Mayor for 9 years already.
“It’s my last term, and yet a case has been filed against me. Hence, I see that it seems like a smear campaign and it seems like politicking. The motive is really political because of the timing. We’re hoping that the case will really be cleared as soon as time as possible,” he said.
On a personal level, the mayor expressed his confidence that there is really no case that he is not affected.
“Hence, I’m confident that the case is very weak, hence on that basis we are expecting that the case will be dismissed,” Teodoro said.
