Mayor Cari airs side on accusation of maltreatment

BAYBAY CITY – The mayor of this city dismissed a claim of a candidate for city councilor that she was maltreated by her when they met in an occassion held at the vicinity of the city public market.

This incident prompted Elita Datahan to report it to the city police and had it blottered.

The alleged incident happened on December 1, during the BAMAVA Day or the Baybay Market Vendors Association Night, the kick-off for the forthcoming fiesta celebration of Baybay.

Mayor Carmen Cari narrated that she was really present during said occassion and that she met Datahan, also known as BB Datahan. During the event,she said, they shared the same table and had confronted Datahan over an issue which the lady mayor claimed was being spread by Datahan.

“Yes I do said that I will run after her, but that doesn’t mean that I will do something bad on her.What I meant with what I said that I will run after her was that I’ll make sure that I will fulfill my duty as the city mayor to ensure that she will do her duty to this city like paying taxes because she is a businesswoman,” Mayor Cari explained.

“It doesn’t mean anything bad, only that she took and interpreted it wrongly,” she added.

Cari also dismissed the claim of Datahan that she crumpled her face. She said that she did really touched the face of the complainant, but it was like a motherly way of touching a face.

Mayor Cari added that in more than 30 years of her life in public service, it is only now that she had faced several complaints from her political rivals, which she said could not turn her down.

“I have a track record that can attest that I had been a good public servant in this city, so I don’t bother if they file cases against me. I will welcome them,” she added.

Furthermore, when asked to comment on charges filed against her in the Office of the Ombudsman, Cari said that she will not comment as of the moment on the issue as no preliminary hearing was made yet by Ombudsman. She added that she does not want to pre-empt the Ombudsman.

However, she made comments over her rival’s penchant of having her interviews in places outside the city like in Tacloban and in Cebu, which according to her should be done in the vicinity of Baybay as she is running for mayor of Baybay.

“Whose votes does she wants to have, votes of Tacloban and Cebu residents, reason why she is doing interviews in those areas.If she really want to get the votes of Baybayanons, she should have her interviews done in the city because we have a radio station her that could air her side,” Cari said.