Senator Joel Villanueva branded Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla’s plan to enforce a 2016 dismissal order against him as “harassment.”

Villanueva, on Thursday, 23 October, denied having any pending case before the Office of the Ombudsman or the Sandiganbayan.

The senator said he had already submitted a copy of the case dismissal to the Ombudsman on 31 July 2019 in relation to the malversation through falsification case.

This was followed by official clearances from both the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan, dated 10 September, confirming that Villanueva has no pending administrative or criminal cases.

In a Viber message, Villanueva said he requested the documents in anticipation of what he described as “harassment.”

“We already anticipated possible harassment. Plus fake news,” he said shortly after sending the clearances.

Villanueva also said they would file cases against fake news spreaders.

Earlier, Remulla said he would write to Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III to enforce Villanueva’s dismissal from public office.

However, he later backtracked on his statement after Villanueva released the documents.

Remulla said he would no longer send a letter to the Senate to implement the 2016 dismissal order over the alleged misuse of at least ₱10 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2008, when Villanueva was still a congressional representative of the CIBAC Party-list.

The dismissal order, signed by then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, found Villanueva and nine others liable for the alleged misuse of his PDAF allocation.