“God as my witness, may He strike me down if this allegation is true.” –Paul Crouch

Iloilo City Councilor Joshua Alim has fired off the first serious graft and corruption allegations against the administration of Iloilo Mayor Jose ‘Joe III’ Espinosa III. The claims center around the new P45 million grandstand, located along Muelle Loney Street in the city’s City proper district, which the mayor temporarily coined the “Iloilo Dinagyang Grandstand.” The city councilor, a candidate for Iloilo City lone district congressman, said he was not convinced the recently-inaugurated venue was worth the cost.

Alim said he was not impressed by the design and voiced plans to call for a Sangguniang Panlungsod investigation into the grandstand.

Once such an investigation gets underway, it will be an inconvenience to Espinosa, a rich man with no need to steal and without a bad public service record. Meanwhile, all the saber rattling is music to incumbent Iloilo City lone district Rep. Jerry Treñas, who is challenging Espinosa for mayor in the upcoming elections.

Those who do not believe Espinosa is a thief will begin to suspect his administration may tolerate graft and corruption. However, this is not to say Alim is correct, in fairness to the mayor, everything uttered has been mere speculation and a formal complaint has yet to be lodged.

Although, with the cat out of the bag, Epinosa cannot just shrug off Alim’s attack. He must prove the councilor wrong by facing the issue and grabbing the bull by the horns.

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I suspect Bacolod City Mayor Evelio ‘Bing’ Leonardia was not happy the honor of holding Manny Pacquaio’s World Boxing Association belt, following his successful title defense against Adrien Broner in Las Vegas last weekend, went to senatorial candidate, former Philippine National Police Director-General Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa. Holding that belt has been Leonardia’s exclusive “franchise” – the mayor even characterized flying to Las Vegas for the fight as a need to “fulfill that obligation.”

There have been previous attempts to replace Leonardia in that role but they all failed – I am living witness to some of the foiled attempts. I personally know VIPs who tried and failed at tricking the mayor. During one of Pacquiao’s fights at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Leonardia gripped the belt so tightly when a physician friend attempted to grab it from his hands. If coolers heads hadn’t prevailed, the Bacolod City mayor seemed ready to square off in an impromptu undercard preliminary bout in the dressing room.

Those who wanted to hold the belt hoped to become instant celebrities as they would be seen by millions of boxing fans all over the world.

This time, however, dela Rosa succeeded (with sinister intentions). As a candidate for senate, he knew his presence would generate a lot of attention from the voters./WDJ