By Nanette Guadalquiver
BACOLOD CITY, (PNA) — The brother of Senate President Franklin Drilon defended him from what he considers a political attack that implicated his elder brother in a plunder case related to the construction of the Hall of Justice in Iloilo City.
Dr. Julius Drilon, administrator of Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMRRH) in this city, told reporters Tuesday the complaint filed by former Iloilo Second District Rep. Augusto Syjuco is politically-motivated.
“These are all politics,” he said.
Drilon said Rep. Arcadio Gorriceta, a Liberal Party candidate supported by their family in the May 2013 elections, defeated Syjuco that’s why the latter is apparently trying to get back at his brother.
Still, the Senate President is ready to answer the complaint once the Office of the Ombudsman orders him to do so, Drilon said.
He added that the subject of the Syjuco complaint is a 21-year-old building, which was constructed using funds sourced by Franklin Drilon when he was still secretary of the Department of Justice during the administration of the late president Corazon Aquino.
Drilon said the Senate President has nothing to do with the construction of the Hall of Justice because it was the Department of Public Works and Highways that implemented the project.
The Iloilo Hall of Justice underwent an extensive evaluation after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit Western Visayas in February 2012.
The Senate President said in news reports that based on the analysis conducted by the experts commissioned by the DPWH Central Office, the building is structurally sound and only needs retrofitting works and minor repairs.
The DPWH funded the retrofitting works, he added.