Tejero: We just had beer, French fries

By LITO RULONA
with NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents

EMBATTLED City Central School principal Arnold Tejero yesterday denied he tried to be intimate with the mother of a 5th grader but admitted he brought her to a motel where, supposedly, they just had beer and French fries.

In a news conference, Tejero also accused a subordinate, teacher Anthony Ceballos, of being behind the complaints filed by the woman.

Ceballos is a former chairperson of the teachers’ cooperative that used to manage the canteen. Tejero claimed that he disciplined Ceballos with a string of administrative cases pertaining to millions of pesos of unaccounted funds.

Tejero also mentioned an education official holding the item “Principal IV” who is now on “floating status” whom he charged with gross dishonesty, and several teachers involved in an alleged anomaly.

He said there were relief goods stored in the canteen for survivors of the typhoon Sendong devastation in 2011 that went missing.

Trixie (not her real name) has filed an acts of lasciviousness complaint against Dr. Tejero before the City Prosecutor’s Office. Late last week, she filed a complaint for abuse against the principal before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Tejero admitted bringing Trixie (not her real name)  to Resonance Inn (formerly Renaissance) along Kauswagan highway in May 17 but maintained that the woman was untouched.

Inside a motel room, Tejero said, they ordered beer and French fries while they discussed a business plan.

“Nag-estorya ra kami didto nag-inom ug beer pero walay nahitabo nga kissing scene,” Tejero said.

In his 16-page counter-affidavit, Tejero said the accusations against him were “lies” that resulted from “ill-motivation” and “pure malice.”

The complaints, he said, were orchestrated.

“The charge of acts of lasciviousness is strongly denied. The alleged acts attributed to me are purely a fabricated story made by a woman with a lying tongue and ill personal motive of her own,” Tejero said.

He accused his accuser of trying to extort money from him and, allegedly, of allowing herself “to be used in conspiracy (with) those who are adversely affected by the official reforms I have made…”

Tejero said he introduced reforms in the school when he assumed as its principal.

The principal also denied that he offered a canteen space to Trixie for free, saying it was not within his prerogative as a principal.

Tejero said what he said was that he would request the canteen assistant manager not to oblige her to pay the bond.

According to Tejero, Trixie called him up days before May 17 and told him about a “big anomaly” involving some teachers at the City Central School.

He said he asked Trixie to identify the teachers referred to but she told him in jest that it was a “secret.”

Tejero said Trixie then told him to meet her in a coffee shop in Divisoria if he really wanted to know. He said a meeting was set at 1 pm in May 17.

He said he started suspecting that something was wrong when Trixie arrived late by more than an hour.

Tejero said they subsequently drove off but inside the car, he started suspecting again because of the way Trixie acted.

“I told myself, whatever happens ahead, I can defend myself. I am a man while the person commandeering me is a woman,” he said.

Tejero said he also asked her if she knew teacher Ceballos, and she disclosed that he was her daughter’s teacher.

He said Ceballos “might be the man behind the scripted plot to entrap him.”

All that time, Tejero said, he did not know where they were headed. He said he asked Trixie, and she allegedly told him to drive to Hightime motel on Tejero Street.

“I told myself that this trip is a frame-up,” he said. And so, Tejero said he drove towards Resonance motel “to abort whatever plan [Trixie] and her possible conspirators have had plotted at the High Time Inn,” he said.

Inside the motel room, Tejero said, he pressed Trixie to tell her about the alleged anomaly at the City Central School but she did not answer.

He asserted that it was not his intention to bring Trixie to Resonance but he decided to bring her there because she wanted them to go to Hightime motel. He said he only wanted to get information from her about the alleged anomaly involving teachers.

Instead, he alleged, Trixie asked him for help–she allegedly asked for P5 thousand because she needed to pay someone who was waiting for her at Centrio mall.

Tejero said he declined, explaining that he only had some P1 thousand in his wallet. He said the woman asked if he could give her the money the following day, and he told her he cannot.

When the bill was paid, he said, they left and Trixie asked him to drop her off at Centrio.

Tejero said the May 17 “invitation” was “really a trap and a frame-up,”and that he was a victim of conspiracy by people who were supposedly behind the filing of the “false and baseless case.”

The principal pointed out what he said were lies in his accuser’s narrative such as how they first met during a school function in March 30, and the reason why they met in May 17. He called the account a “false, fabricated and poorly written script.”

He said the woman also lied when she alleged that he sent her a friend request on Facebook.

“Dili man gani ko kabalo mo-open sa akong Facebook account. Wala gani’y mga update kay dili kita kahibalo. I must admit that I belong to the old school,” Tejero said.

He challenged his accuser to ask the anti-cybercrime unit of the police to look into their supposed Facebook exchanges.

Tejero admitted that a photo was taken inside the motel room using his own cellphone. He said Trixie copied it via Bluetooth because he planned to delete his copy for fear that his wife might see it.

The principal denied that he took his polo shirt off. He showed reporters an allegedly edited photo showing him in a white undershirt (sando) beside the woman.

He accused Trixie of editing the photo taken inside the motel room in order to malign him.

“Paghuman niya ug selfie gamit ang akong cell phone, iya dayon nga gi-transfer ang picture sa iyang cellphone. So naa na siya copy sa among picture. Iya dayon nga gi-edit. Ang labas nag-sando nako, pero nag polo ko anang panahona,” Tejero said.