THINKED TV

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Tuesday said the graft case filed against him was allegedly part of dirty tactics of some political groups.

In a 17-page complaint, Pasig City resident Ethelmart Cruz accused Sotto, Business Permit and Licensing Department (BPLD) personnel Melanie de Mesa, and City Administrator Jeronimo Manzanero of illegally granting a 100% discount on Converge’s waiver of penalties as the telecommunications provider accumulated business tax amounting to P3.67 billion in 2022.

The complaint stated that the P3.67 billion business tax dues included surcharge and interest due to Converge’s under-declaration of the extent of its operations, in particular the number of its employees and the size of its office space.

In a comment on a Facebook post regarding the filing of the complaint, Sotto said that he has yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

“It’s important to understand the process that cases go through in the Office of the Ombudsman. It’s easy to have a complaint received and then sensationalize it by bringing the “received” copy to the media,” he said.

“With this particular complaint, I can’t even comment because I don’t have an official copy. In some cases, the Ombudsman dismisses it outright, and we won’t even receive a copy. Other times, there will be a clarificatory hearing,” he added.

Sotto also shrugged off the graft case filed against him as he noted its “interesting timing.”

“This is not the first time,” Sotto said in a statement. “Notice the interesting timing of this – at the same time that certain political groups are ramping up their political activities.”

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