By Francis Allan L. Angelo
NO big deal.
This was the justification of Mayor Arcadio H. Gorriceta of Pavia, Iloilo on the letter which he sent to the sister of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as regards the Tupas family and the appointment of the regional presidential assistant.
Gorriceta initially played coy when asked about the letter but yesterday admitted that he wrote and sent the letter to Ballsy Aquino-Cruz which included a clipping of The Daily Guardian’s opinion page published July 21, 2010.
The opinion page featured a letter to the editor which thumbed down the appointment of Tupas family members to the Aquino administration for alleged involvement in graft and corruption.
Gorriceta acknowledged the letter as his own after reading TDG’s report on the correspondence published Monday, November 22. He also owned up to the letter after it was read to him by Bombo anchorman Don Dolido Tuesday morning.
But Gorriceta said he merely cited in the letter negative media reports on the Tupases.
The mayor said the letter was triggered by an earlier conversation with Ms. Aquino-Cruz who asked for his assessment of the Tupas family.
“I told her that there are negative media reports on the Tupases. When I read the article in the newspaper on the Tupas family, I sent a copy to her (Aquino-Cruz) for their own review. I just cited the article to her to validate our previous conversation,” Gorriceta said.
Gorriceta said he did not malign former governor Niel Tupas Sr., his party mate in the ruling Liberal Party, as he only supported his statement on the negative media reports against Tupas.
“I had no intention to hurt or malign anyone. Ballsy (Aquino-Cruz) asked me about the Tupases and it was my obligation to answer her. The letter only highlighted media reports on the former governor. There is nothing personal in this issue,” he said.
Gorriceta said he sent the letter to Aquino-Cruz but he did not bother to follow it up, especially that President Aquino announced that he will not appoint regional presidential assistants.
The Gorriceta letter also endorsed Teresa Chan, sister of balladeer Jose Mari and businessman Steven Chan, as presidential assistant for Western Visayas.
Gorriceta said Chan was not initially interested in the post until she learned of the endorsement for her appointment.
No comments:
Post a Comment