PASACAO, Camarines Sur – Her name having been dragged into the controversy of alleged missing P5 million coco funds, lady municipal councilor Marilyn Sotto last week pressed her colleagues to invite Mayor Manuel S.A. Lee-Oliver in a Sanggunian Bayan inquiry to once and for all shed light on the matter.

        The lady municipal lawmaker was reacting to a Bicol Mail report of January 29, 2007 issue that based on farmers’ complaints nothing has been heard of about the funds which had been allegedly given by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the inauguration of the town’s fish pot in Bgy. Sta. Rosa about three years ago as assistance to alleviate the plight of the town’s coconut farmers.

        The report added that said funds had been deposited in a rural bank owned by a close kin of a municipal kagawad.

        In an interview with Bicol Mail, Kagawad Sotto admitted that her brother co-owns the Bangko Rural ng Pasacao but denied having any knowledge about the bank’s operations and transactions, much less about the alleged deposit in her family’s rural bank of the P5 million funds doled out by Malacañang.

        In her privilege speech last Monday, February 5, Sotto said a statement from the municipal mayor on the issue would once and for all settle the controversy, especially that the coconut farmers identified her as the one who actually received from the President the check worth P5 million.

        Local coconut farmers here are desperately wanting to seek clarification on the issue especially at this time that they need any form of assistance following the series of typhoons that hit the province late last year which badly devastated coconut and other agricultural products.

        The lady lawmaker underscored in her speech that as public officials, they are duty-bound to inform the public about government transactions, especially if they involve government funds.

        Cleo Panes-Ramos, president of Pasacao Business Circle here, commended Kagawad Sotto’s call for transparency and accountability on the part of public officials, saying that transparency in government encourages meaningful participation by and partnership with the local businessmen, non-government organizations, and other sectors of society.

        Ramos at the same time took to task the incumbent mayor for his alleged “no-care” attitude towards certain concerns that the business sector wanted him to act on.