I salute Rep. Treñas

"A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing."
--Elizabeth I

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Even if he did not benefit a single centavo but was unceremoniously "punished" for doing what he thought was the right thing to do, Iloilo City lone district Rep. Jerry P. Treñas gamely faced the ax and did not contest the unjust 90-day preventive suspension meted by the Sandiganbayan.
Treñas was Iloilo City mayor when he ordered the release of Senator Loren Legarda's priority development assistance fund (PDAF) worth P500,000 for the construction of the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) building in Molo district more than 15 years ago.
Under the law, Legarda could not release the money direct to the IPC being a private organization, thus it was sent through the city hall as intermediary local government agency.
As soon as the fund was available and when the IPC sought Treñas' help, he ordered the release of the money in full amount.
For helping both Legarda in particular, and the IPC in general, Treñas ended up in hot water.
In Tagalog parlance, siya ang bahala, siya pa ang naging kawawa. In Hiligaynon, siya pa ang nag bulig, siya pa ang nalinti-ian.

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To his shock and horror, Treñas found himself a recipient of the Ombudsman case filed before the Sandiganbayan.
His crime?
Treñas supposedly gave “unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference” to the IPC “which was not an accredited non-government organization (NGO) of the city.”
He also allegedly violated Commission on Audit’s Circular No. 96-003 for "failure to monitor the implementation of the project and failure to require fund liquidation."
Here's another case of a good and decent public official being canned not because he stole the taxpayers' money, but because he overlooked certain technicalities when he issued a clean edict.
Amid all the hullabaloo on the issue, we never heard Treñas complain against this clear injustice done against him.
As a lawyer, the congressman wanted to deal the issue in a legal manner sans banter and blunderbuss.
Because his conscience is clear, Treñas elected to face the charges like Sir Thomas More, who, after reciting the Miserere while kneeling before his execution by beheading in 1872, rose up merrily, kissed the man who was about to decapitate him, and gave him forgiveness.
He never demanded from the IPC in public to "hey guys, enough of your silence. Liquidate Sen. Legarda's P500,000 and save me from hell."