AN OPEN LETTER
(In Response to Open Poison Letters)
April 20, 2010
My dear fellow Boholanos:
I am writing to you as a serious and willing candidate for governor of our beloved Province of Bohol. I offer all my experiences, capacities and character in the best service of the Boholanos.
I am appealing for your kind support as I embark on a crusade for SELFLESS SERVANT LEADERSHIP. I call on all of you to rally for a cause protecting the honor and integrity of our Boholano being. Our golden traits are now placed in grave danger through the reckless and irresponsible acts unbecoming of people who purport to be good leaders of our Province and City yet serve their selfish interest first and foremost.
Allow me, therefore, to confide to you the truth against the lies, deceits and half-truths of a man whom I have otherwise learned to respect all these years---Gov. Erico Aumentado---and his present allies. We now stand in unlike sides for compelling reasons. Thay started cheating and are now escalating their dishonesty and betrayal into a grand alliance dubbed the rainbow coalition to sell the Boholano votes to the highest bidders.
Let me invite you to the following very alarming events and circumstances:
THE RAINBOW COALITION AND ITS DECEPTIVE COLORS
What is wrong with the rainbow coalition? Just as a rainbow has no true color, the coalition is a manifestation of unprincipled leadership.
Purported leaders from opposing parties coalesced for only one reason---to advance their selfish interest, assuring their funding regardless of wherever and from whomever it is obtained. As City Mayor Dan Lim who is a founding partner of the coalition explained, it means we go with whoever wins. If Lakas-Kampi-CMD wins, go to Aumentado; if NP wins, go to Vice Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera; if Erap wins, go to Dan Lim. It indeed endlessly shames as it portrays the Boholano electors as bankrupt in principles and the Boholano ballots for highest auction, effectively prostituting the Boholanos’ right to vote. Where has our living legacy---that the Boholanos are good and proud people---gone?
The rainbow coalition shows how crooked leaders can be so wicked. Well-meaning Boholanos can’t let their kind to perpetuate. The coalition is a defect. It is primarily led by a Lakas traitor who, to cover up his betrayal, has pretended and deceptively crusaded to be honest even if others are not---even if he himself is not. In having betrayed his fellow leaders, how could he assure the helpless people of sincerity?
Herrera, whom Aumentado is endorsing, publicly stated that there is nothing wrong with corruption because nothing is free in politics. That is why both share common view on the issue of honesty.
In advocating to go for whoever will be the winner, Dan Lim manifested his penchant to go where the money is, throwing principles like garbage to the dogs. Should this man keep dishonorably leading our only City of Tagbilaran? I will not detail further his dark leadership. The Tagbilaranons already knew too well. Ask them.
The rainbow coalition is wet. The coalition bows to the rain.
CHATTO AND OTHER FAITHFUL LAKAS LEADERS WERE BETRAYED
Aumentado did not nominate Chatto as official party candidate for governor until he was done in ensuring that Herrera and Abapo would be his NP front men in Bohol. Then he fielded Lakas and NP slates in Bohol. He is obsessed to protect his vested interests in both the Arroyo administration and Villar.
He was at his height of hypocrisy in supposedly regretting for his withdrawal of support for me. Before it, he already raised the hands of Herrera-led NP candidates and proclaimed them right on the stage of the Lakas-Aumentado wing rally in Talibon. His later declaration to withdraw his support for Chatto was only to justify his evident betrayal which was premeditated. Many have long known that his support would not be for Chatto but NP to protect his line to NP. Is this candor? Is this honesty?
Aumentado, Herrera and their conspirators know most of their original sinister plan to destroy Chatto and Rep. Roberto Cajes. Recently, the governor invented a “rainbow coalition†with the same conspirators and intent killing politically the two solons and their faithful group.
To deceive the people, Aumentado, again, maliciously recalled the election result for governor in Balilihan in 2004 just to portray me as traitor. He harbored hatred over his 52-vote lose to Relampagos but loved to forget that in the same election he gained 2,000 more votes than how many he got in the 2001 poll. I was with Relampagos in 2001. Me and Aumentado joined on account of the unification in 2004. It was the Chattos, not his wife and children, who campaigned for him in Balilihan in 2004.
While he won province-wide, Aumentado lost in Tagbilaran City and some towns. Why cannot he then blame former City Mayor Joe Torralba? Because he fears of being backfired for funding Dan Lim? Why can’t he then point an accusing finger to ex-Mayors Efren Tungolh and Benie Uy of Alburquerque and Baclayon? Because they will get back at him for double-playing with their opponents? Aumentado also urged and supported Leoncio Evasco for Maribojoc mayor when in fact it was Philip Medequeso and Ben Redulla who were the candidates for mayor and vice mayor of the group. These and more are betrayals not known to many. He also did the same in his hometown Ubay and several other towns.. What he did in the past he does it this election, and this time more shamelessly and mercilessly.
Contrary to his false claim, I encourage the good governor to name any Malacañang official whom he alleged to have heard me ordering to defeat him in Balilihan “by a slight margin.†Or else he lied the thousandth time, which is normal to him the thousandth time.
MEGA-DECEIVER AND CONSUMMATE LIAR
Aumentado’s betrayal which led to his CONA revocation and his magic to distort facts have caused troubles to Lakas. It should have been us, Chatto and Cajes, telling the governor to explain for fielding Lakas and NP slates. Being traitorous and unprincipled are un-Boholano traits.
He submitted the Bohol line-up of Lakas but excluding Cajes for vice governor. This surprised the congressman. Recently, we learned that he is indeed for the NP bet even if he had then also urged Inday Conching Lim to run as an independent candidate. If you were Cajes, would you not protest for being betrayed severally?
Aumentado further lied. Lately, new Lakas National Pres. Francis Manglapus denied of any instance that they apologized to him for revoking his CONA. There is no cause for sorry because the governor himself knew he deserved it. His CONA was reconsidered but simply because some senior party members cited the factor of “long relationship†and not realities. His CONA was revoked by the national party to outsmart the traitor, thereby preventing him from sabotaging the party any further.
Once more, he projected a mega-deceit in saying that the unity mass at St. Joseph Cathedral in the city hours before his CONA’s revocation was a betrayal cover-up. However, Manglapus stood by their statement that Chatto had no knowledge of the sudden national party decision. Who then have been proven traitors? Very evidently not Chatto, Cajes, Inday Conching Lim, Relampagos, Judith Cajes and Arthur Yap. Who then have allied in favor of NP and other groups?
WHO IS THE “SMILING ASSASSIN�
Chatto is a truly smiling person, but it is Aumentado who is a saboteur par excellence. The congressman has been consistent in helping the province, guarding the budgets needed for Bohol.
Aumentado, on the other hand, would not fail to call Chatto and the other solons for help to get favors from Malacañang, Congress, national agencies and other fund sources. But once the projects are implemented, they would appear like solo performances of Aumentado. While still in Congress, he did not assist the Relampagos administration. But he would help only when he could sense that he could get favors in return.
As a former veteran member of Congress, Aumentado knows that a congressman merely secures or facilitates fund for development projects implemented by various agencies, including LGUs. But whenever implementation issues are raised, he would blame Chatto and other fund facilitators as his scapegoat. Aumentado would even have his paid media hacks attacking Chatto. Why should he not ask the implementing agencies? He would not tell the people that Chatto demanded from the DPWH to order the contractor to rework a road section in Panglao without additional cost to the government.
Aumentado calculatedly did the same to the DepEd computer education program which was supported by Chatto. The DepEd procured and paid the multi-media instructional materials in English, Science and Math with copyrights which are protected by law. The computer sets were just a hardware part of the whole package. Instead of verifying from DepEd, he misled the public in charging the project as overpriced. Aumentado did not tell the people that long ago, he assisted a similar DepEd program but his TV set and instructional tapes already costed P130,000---that long ago.
He is, again because it’s election time, mad at the wisdom of the then outgoing Relampagos administration to terminate the agreement with DPWH on a P125 million road project in 2001. Since Relampagos was to step down as governor, and Chatto to serve as congressman, the province decided to have the nationally funded project implemented by DPWH. After all, the fund was coursed though the highways department. So why is Aumentado so bothered by this in this election season which is already a decade after the project? It is said that malice resides not in the mind. It is a motive of an act.
This is a good awakening: Aumentado, in his time as congressman, could have been involved even in negotiation with the contractors. Could this lead to a conclusion that he is accountable for the P165 million Talibon dam scam and other anomalous dam projects and road works in his district that costed the government billions of pesos? On the other hand, contractors know that Chatto entrusts the implementation of projects to the proper or concerned agencies, including LGUs. The good governor must precisely be honest NOW to the Boholanos.
Aumentado is a great pretender in claiming sole credit for Bohol development. This was what he also did about the Panglao airport project even if he severally asked the assistance of Chatto and other congressmen. But because the project has not been started until today, he blamed Chatto as a scapegoat for his blunder. Aumentado is challenged to name the NAIA authorities whom he claimed were asked by Chatto to delay the project, and they will all come face to face to expose who lied again. Reports of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Corruption Watch Philippines and Bohol Chronicle cited attempts to rig the bidding and a demand for P100 million advance kickback or commission. An Aumentado consultant was involved according to reports. A Manila airport authority source reported the filing of a serious Ombudsman complaint.
The Grand Design of Deception of Aumentado, his cohorts of surrogate loyalty to Lakas and unholy allies in other groups has been exposed to bare bones. Judgment now depends on your wisdom, my dear people of Bohol.
I, Edgar M. Chatto, a serious and willing candidate for governor, am finally exhorting your full trust and cooperation. Never in the history of our precious province has there been a time like this. Our cherished traditions and noble values have been unduly trampled and mocked upon.
We can move together for Bohol’s genuine sustainable development as we remain one and inseparable in our quest for truth in governance and dealings.
Thank you. May God guide us always.
Very truly yours,
signed
Atty. EDGAR M. CHATTO
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