Ombudsman case not politically motivated
LEGAZPI CITY: As the political rivalry begins to brew in Albay a year before the 2025 elections, former Ako Bicol Party-list representative Alfredo Garbin criticized Gov. Edcel Greco “Grex” Lagman for saying that the recent complaint filed against him before the Ombudsman is politically motivated.
Garbin then advised Lagman to focus on his jueteng (illegal numbers game) payola case and prove his innocence.
“He better focus on the deposit slips and the allegedly jueteng payola directly deposited to his BDO account. His alibi of [being] politically motivated will not do well in his case,” said Garbin.
“That alibi is the weakest defense.”
On Wednesday, Lagman implicated Garbin behind the complaint of Alwin Nimo, the village chieftain of Anislag Daraga town, against him.
“Black propaganda connotes spreading rumors or lies. What we have with Grex Lagman is an actual case supported by substantial documentary evidence such as the deposit slips,” Garbin said.
“Maybe he is in denial or he just wants to divert the attention of the Albayanos to the real issue which is his graft case over the alleged jueteng payola.”
Lagman has declared his intention to run for the gubernatorial post in 2025.
In the 35-page complaint, Nimo claimed that he initially delivered P60,000 per week to Lagman from August 2019 to June 2022 when the latter was the vice governor.
Lagman allegedly demanded the “protection money” from jueteng operators and received as much as P8 million in bribes.
Lagman, however, denied the charges thrown against him.
“A vice governor is only a spare tire. Nimo was introduced to me by the former Albay governor Al Francis Bichara. He was a former barangay captain. A mere village chieftain without a clout from the media brought with him national media when he filed a case against me in the Ombudsman? Somebody is financing him,” Lagman said on Wednesday.
Lagman took over as governor after the winner in Albay’s gubernatorial race, Noel Rosal, was unseated for violation of an election code following public spending for giving financial aid to tricycle drivers and senior citizens as pandemic assistance while he was still the mayor of Legazpi City.
Joseph San Juan Armogila, a tricycle driver and a known political ally of Garbin, filed a disqualification case against then-governor Noel Rosal and his wife then-mayor Geraldine Rosal before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The Comelec en banc, led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia, disqualified Rosal from his post and Lagman took over the province’s top post on Nov. 30, 2022.