By EDWIN IYO
with NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents
GINGOOG City — Slapped with separate charges, a councilor here yesterday strongly denied that he hurt a 56-year old woman over a land dispute in Barangay 25, this city, last month.
In a statement sent to the Gold Star Daily, Councilor Jerome Mercado called the accusation a “pure fabrication and twisted from the truth with the sole intent of maligning” his reputation as a public official.
The woman, Juliet de Lara-Folton, filed three separate criminal charges for malicious mischief, grave oral defamation, and grave slander by deed against Mercado before the City Prosecutor’s Office on Monday.
While her brother Teofilo de Lara Jr. said his sister is married to a Folton, Mercado’s accuser merely used “Juliet de Lara” in her complaint. There was no explanation for the use of different surnames.
The complainant was accompanied by her elder brothers Teofilo Jr. and Florante when she pressed charges against Mercado for allegedly slapping her thrice at the parking area of the Gingoog Gallera in Malanca, Barangay 25 in Sept. 21.
The woman also claimed that Mercado called her “nawong kuarta.”
The three complaints against Mercado were subscribed and sworn before lawyer Rhodora Nuñez-Restituto.
The de Laras are claiming ownership of part of the parking lot used by Gingoog Gallera, a cockpit owned by the Mercado family.
In his statement, Mercado said the accusations were made up even as he cried foul over the publication of news stories based on de Lara-Folton’s complaint, adding that he suspected that his political adversaries were exploiting it.
“It was rather unfortunate and very disappointing knowing that this controversy has been circulated on the news without first hearing my side of the story. It is easy to accept and apologize for any wrongdoing that I may have done, but if you’ll confront me with lies and twisted facts, that is a different story altogether,” reads part of Mercado’s statement.
He added: “To say that I have slapped a woman is unacceptable. I shall defend myself in the proper forum in order to set the records straight.”
Mercado neither identified the “political adversaries” he was referring to nor did he elaborate exactly how they were in the position to exploit the Sept. 21 incident. Except for the denial, he did not state his own version of the Sept. 21 incident.
In a Sept. 24 post on Facebook that was reported in this paper, Mercado stated: “Pobre ra intawon me dili nako na mabuhat.”
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