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ILOILO CITY ? Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Augusto Syjuco has dismissed as "meddling" the accusations hurled against him by socialite Rosemarie ?Baby? Arenas.
Reacting to Arenas' calls for the Office of the Ombudsman to resolve pending cases against him for alleged graft and other irregularities, Syjuco said Arenas was not in the position to issue such calls.
"She was never a party to any case against me. Why is she meddling? Isn't it obvious that she's doing that because of the elections?" Syjuco told the Inquirer on Sunday.
Arenas earlier challenged Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to resolve the pending cases against Syjuco especially the plunder charge filed by the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLink), a federation of government employees, in relation to an alleged P60-million overprice in the purchase of Tesda training equipment.
Arenas son, Ramon "Citoy" Arenas Jr., is running under the Nationalist People's Coalition against Syjuco of the Lakas-Kampi for representative of Iloilo's second congressional district, a post currently held by Syjuco's wife, Rep. Judy Syjuco.
Syjuco said the Ombudsman has not been sitting on the cases as Arenas has claimed. He also questioned why the socialite was the one issuing statements against him.
"Who am I running against? Is it her or her son? Why not let her son do the talking for himself," Syjuco said.
But Arenas said she has a right to raise questions on the progress of the cases even if she was not a candidate. INQUIRER
