CAPIZ – Capiz Provincial Administrator Edwin Chinel Monares defended himself against the administrative and criminal charges filed against him by Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas.
In a statement sent to Panay News, Monares said he will wait for the complaint and he will address it accordingly.
“I know that I am innocent for I only posted the truth. No malice intended. It was in the interest of transparency. After all public office is a public trust,” said Monares.
To recall, Dadivas specifically filed two cases, a criminal case for violation of the Cyber Crime Law and an administrative case for grave misconduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Monares.
The city mayor also filed a civil case for damages at the Regional Trial Court – Roxas City.
The case stemmed from an alleged malicious Facebook (FB)post of Monares relative to the city’s Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) from the Commission on Audit (COA).
Monares through his FB account posted part of the copy of COA’s audit report with a caption, “The Liberal Party in Capiz is questioning the AOM of COA involving the amount of 241M for medicines and medical supplies and 17.5M that was merely listed on a different account. These politicians with the brand of LYING and DECEIVING the people of Capiz are now telling everyone that the provincial government is corrupt as evidenced by the AOM. Our concerned official has (sic) answered this already. If the Liberal Party is to believe (sic) in their LIES and DECEPTIONS, then how could the City Government under the leadership of an LP stalwart explain the 1.336 billion, not a millions subject of AOM?”
Dadivas rebutted that Monares’ Facebook was “highly malicious, and intended to impute, even without proof, false accusation, and intentionally put discredit or dishonor on the very character and integrity of the city mayor as well as, on the good name of the Roxas City Government.”
He also earlier addressed the issue and emphasized that the city government instituted corrective measures on the “significant findings” stated in the COA 2020 Annual Audit Report (AAR) of Roxas City./PN
