The Quezon City Legal Department on Sunday disclosed that two more graft cases are being readied against former Mayor Herbert Bautista following the earlier graft charges filed against him and another former QC local government official.

QC Legal Department head Atty. Niño Casimiro, however, clarified that the impending graft cases are still subject for review by their department after the internal audit ordered by Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte.

He added that the local government has found some discrepancies and anomalies which are disadvantageous to the people of the city.

The City Legal Department also downplayed Bautista’s pronouncement that the graft charges against him and his former city administrator Aldrin Cuña were “politically motivated.”

“It’s been a long time 2019-2020 when that transaction happened. Mayor Belmonte, upon assuming the position, established an internal audit on all the local government transactions. Pending or proposed in lieu of good governance. We filed the case at the Office of the Ombudsman after finding some discrepancies,” Casimiro said.

The City Legal Department also downplayed Bautista’s pronouncement that the graft charges against him and his former city administrator Aldrin Cuña were ‘politically motivated.’

He added that Bautista’s pronouncement “that the cases are politically motivated” is “fake news.”

“There is no election in sight. How could that be politically motivated? If ever the Quezon City goverment has a concern on that cases, it is the money wrongfully disbursed. It’s the people’s money we wanted to recover,” Casimiro said.

“The accused’s statement is irrelevant to the serious corruption cases he is now facing before the Sandiganbayan. It is the Ombudsman, through the Office of the Special Prosecutor, who is prosecuting his crimes after finding evidence sufficient to sustain a finding of probable cause,” he added.

“The foregoing notwithstanding, the Quezon City Government is consistent in enforcing accountability regardless of the personalities involved, which includes, among others, the close monitoring of graft and corruption cases in order to recover public funds which have been stolen by unscrupulous local government officials and/or employees — whether past or present,” Casimiro explained.