Who the hell spends 90 million pesos of the people’s money on food and drinks?
Graft charges had been filed against Bautista at the Office of the Ombudsman regarding his questionable use and his inability to account for the P300 million Vice- Mayor’s annual budget which totals P2.7 Billion for a period of nine years.
Before Bautista came on air for the interview, QC mayoral candidate Mike Defensor told ANC TV of the questionable expenditure by the Office of the Vice-Mayor using a big chunk of the office’s allocated budget for food and drinks that were declared as emergency purchases.
Defensor disclosed that the actor/ comedian spent almost P98 million on questionable purchase of food and softdrinks in 2009. Before that, the Vice-Mayor’s Office spent almost P83 million in 2008 and P33million in 2007 all on food and drinks.
“If we were to look closely, almost one-third of the Office of the Vice-Mayor’s budget was allocated for foods and drinks. You just don’t use that portion of the fund to buy softdrinks. You must prioritize your program for our constituents,” Defensor said.
Defensor stated that the fact that these transactions did not undergo the bidding process and a certification stating that there were no food and drinks sighted during the inspection made the acquisition more dubious and questionable.Failing to answer the accusations against him directly, the former comedian instead dismissed the issue as black propaganda and political harassment.But according to Defensor, the complaints against Bautista are ‘statement of facts’ because these are supported with documents from the city hall itself.
“We have documents given by city hall officials and even councilors that will prove that the complaints against the Vice-Mayor are true. So these are not black propaganda. These are statement of facts,” explained Defensor. -Dona Victorina
