Personal appearances before the Ombudsman

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

Remember how Dagupan City Mayor Benjie Lim manipulated the process to have the overpriced street lights installed?

He ordered the city council to approve in a special session a draft resolution authorizing him to plan and negotiate the installation of the streetlights. The storyline was there was only one supplier who could provide the preferred specifications, hence no bidding was possible. He had the resolutions approved about 3 months after the streetlights were ordered! Of course, the city council of onor-onors replied with a resounding “arf-arf”! And everyone had a merry Christmas! It didn’t matter to them that I personally traced the named supplier and discovered that it was not even engaged in the business of streetlights but in the manufacture and distribution of threads! Thanks to an indifferent citizenry, they got away with it.

Obviously emboldened by that successful foray into the city’s funds, Mr. Lim and his ilk have plotted another script on basically the same storyline. This time, with Onor-onors Vlad Mata, Nic Aquino and Luis Samson Jr. (minus erstwhile pointman Teofilo Guadiz III), Mr. Lim again wants the city council to give themselves a merrier Christmas by approving an ante-dated resolution authorizing him to seek out a developer to negotiate the development of the area where Bugnay Commercial Center once stood, and finally to endorse the contract four months after he identified, negotiated with the developer Metrostate Realty Corporation.   

Nakaloko na, mang-gagago pa!
        

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CONSTRUCTIVE GRAFT – Fortunately, there was Councilor Alex de Venecia who immediately objected to the process. I guess, unlike some of his colleagues, he didn’t feel comfortable being one of the “na-gago” in the prepared story plot.

Just like in the previous story, Mr. Lim’s city hall team led by City Administrator Raffy Baraan with City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued in tow, created the scenario that there were two other bidders but that they were disqualified. But did they name the two? No. Did they present the post bidding report? No.

That nobody seemed too bothered or surprised (with the exception perhaps of de Venecia) that the approval of the ante-dated resolutions was being sought after the contract was already awarded should indicate that Mr. Lim is confident that most everyone is familiar with the S.O.P.

What I found most amusing about the new script was how Ms. Baniqued attempted to justify the new contract notwithstanding the existing contract of the city government with Bugnay Development Corp. She said it’s a case of “constructive abandonment”!

I guess if “constructive resignation of President Estrada” worked for GMA’s assumption to power, so too can the city use it for another play for graft and corruption.

Constructive abandonment? Not as convincing as constructive graft”!

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NOT A THREAT, BUT A PROMISE! What Mr. Lim and the city council will do from hereon about the anomalous lease contract is worth watching. 

I do know that any attempt to “legalize” what was clearly an illegal act can only lead to personal appearances by the mayor, the councilors, and yes, the winning bidder before the Ombudsman.

The Sinag ng Bayan Foundation will see to that. This is the group that filed a complaint against former DAR Usec. Joc-joc Bolante and other agriculture officials for the fertilizer scam, and former DPWH Sec. Florante Soriquez and other DPWH officials for the “bridges leading to nowhere”.

This is not a threat, it’s a promise!  

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ALVIN-GONZ TONDALIGAN MATCH. Don’t look now but there is a major word war in the offing that can make the recent the Paquiao-Morales bout look like an amateur fight.

Playing with Fire columnist Gonz Duque apparently drew blood with his latest tirade against Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez for the apparent cavalier fashion that the city officials are handling the beachfront-for-sale racket inside Tondaligan Park.

Gonz’s straight punches are what they are, straight and never one to hit below the belt where issues on good governance are concerned. VM Alvin, on the other hand, is out to carve a name of his own in the city’s politics and he has proven to be both adept and adroit at being a politician, perhaps even better than his old man.

But the two are like two trains coming from opposite sides on the same tracks. Whose train will remain on the track after an inevitable collision?

Aaah, my guess is Gonz will be the last man standing. Why? Not because he writes for The PUNCH but because he has no political agenda except to be the handsomest brother of the Health Secretary. Alvin will not win this one because he is virtually standing on a political quicksand that has reportedly swallowed one too many of his political allies. To abandon them at this time will risk his election as mayor in 2007 (assuming Mayor Benjie will be man enough to face Speaker JdV in a showdown). 

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THE TRUTH. PLEASE! Going beyond the “word war” and hysterics, Gonz and The PUNCH are out to ferret the truth about the on-going racket at the Tondaligan Park. Believe you me, it’s a racket that is not exclusive to Dagupan City, that’s for sure.  

<>There is a land-grabbing syndicate operating inside the DENR with the complicity of some officials in the city government (and in San Fabian and Lingayen as well). They must be unmasked and prevent other would-be investors from being duped.

Alvin might be the key but is he prepared to do what it takes to be a man with a strong political will partial only to good governance?

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)

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