BACOLOD CITY – Sipalay City Mayor Oscar Montilla Jr. said the P480-million plunder and malversation of public fund case filed against him by Samahang Magdalo Inc. member Rodolfo Divinagracia is about politics.

“It’s still the same. It’s political harassment because the election is again approaching,” Montilla said in a radio interview Saturday night.

He said his detractors are apparently out to malign his reputation and destroy his administration.

Montilla, however, said he has not yet received a copy of the complaints and only learned about it from the news.

But if the amount has reached that much, he said, it’s impossible for the Commission on Audit not to notice it because every year city government’s spending is being audited and every expense is accounted for.

“We are puzzled where that amount came from,” Montilla said.

On Friday, Divinagracia, a resident of Sipalay City, filed criminal and administrative complaints for plunder, malversation of public funds and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act before the Office of the Ombudsman against Montilla and more than 20 others, including members of the Montilla family, and other city officials.

SMI president Gary Alejano said in a press statement that Montilla was accused of stashing away at least P480 million in government funds between years 2002 and 2010.

Alejano lost to Montilla in the mayoralty race in 2010, but he clarified that political rivalry is not involved in the complaints filed by Divinagracia.

The case is a personal initiative of Divinagracia, he added.

Other respondents are the mayor’s wife, Juana Jamora Montilla; his mother, former Mayor Soledad Chua Montilla; and his sister Gina Montilla Lizares.

Also included, among others, are Councilors Myrna Fernandez, Edmund Garinganao, Jonathan Eran, Ullysis Hisona, Dennis Galvan, Dionilo Bogtae, Alfredo Lim, Bardot Nobleza, William Selga, and Phraem Mediodia, and Association of Barangay Captains president Henly Lirazan and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Jaira Eran.*NLG