JQ cleared from rape raps; attends SP session

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO --- Embattled provincial board member Johnny Quiambao appeared in public again on October 19 to attend the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) weeks after being absent from public eye amid an accusation of raping a minor.

In his speech at the start of the SP session, Quiambao thanked his fellow members of the board for allowing him to extend his official leave of absence.

“I am deeply grateful for this kind of understanding of the predicament I was in during this period when I had to thresh out and settle some personal problems which have nothing to do with my official function as member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan,” Quiambao said in his statement.

Quiambao has been cleared by a regional trial court of the rape case levelled against him by a woman whom he has given financial assistance “but never known personally”.

Last October 7, Judge Adelaida Ala-Medina of the RTC Branch 45 in the City of San Fernando dismissed the case filed against Quiambao after State Prosecutor II, Giselle Marie Geronimo, filed a motion to withdraw the charges against the provincial legislator.

Geronimo’s motion was made following the filing of an affidavit of desistance by Quiambao’s alleged victim.

Quiambao said he prays for the issue to be put to rest as he bared plans to quit politics in favor of his family whom he left in Canada.

He clarified that his leave of absence was not due to the rape case he faced but to attend important family gatherings abroad.

In reporting back to his duties in the province, Quiambao immediately filed a resolution seeking the allocation of P50 million for the province’s typhoon-hit agriculture sector.

In his proposed resolution, Quiambao said the P50 million would boost the ability of farmers to rebound from the past calamities that submerged several farmlands especially those in low-lying areas of the province. (By Albert B. Lacanlale)