Punchline
How ‘constructive graft’ operates
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
If you want to have an idea how “constructive graft” in the city government of Dagupan can be detected, then watch closely how the series of cover-up is being managed to protect the secret transaction between the office of the city mayor and the Metrostate Realty Development Corporation for the takeover of the Magsaysay Park ostensibly for tourism purposes.
Then keep a steady watch on the body language of the following characters: Mayor Lim, City Administrator Raffy Baraan, City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued, Councilors Vlad Mata, Teofilo Guadiz III, Michael Fernandez and Nic Aquino.
To better anticipate what sort of cover-up can be expected, I suggest you monitor Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez’s blog (http://alvin.prepys.com). From his viewpoints, you can surmise what’s going on inside the biggest snake’s pit in the city.
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LAYING THE GROUNDWORK. For your quick update, here’s a summary of the activities engineered by the city hall crocs.
On or before April 20, 2006, Mayor Benjie entered into a secret agreement with prospective owners of Metrostate to construct a building (insiders suspect it’s for the new location of Centromart Dagupan owned by who else?) on a build-operate-transfer basis. Then Mr. Baraan and Ms. Baniqued trooped to the city council on November 21 and told the city council to pass a number of resolutions that would put the legal imprimatur on the activities that led to the illegally transaction.
One such resolution required is the authorization for Mayor Benjie to identify and negotiate with qualified contractors to develop the Magsaysay Park for tourism purposes. Another resolution demanded (on a back-to-back basis) is an endorsement of the awarding of the contract to Metrostate requiring only P12 million in annual lease.
Since this was not the first time Messers. Lim and Baraan pulled off such a stunt, they expected immediate and full acquiescence from their loyal onor-onors. But they miscalculated. Councilor Alex De Venecia protested and worse, Veem Alvin fired off a series of missiles in their direction.
Recently, the cabal of Lim, Baraan and Baniqued rejected any suggestion that a re-bedding be done to correct the irregular process because they insist everything was above board? Duh?
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Here’s how they have so far defended their claim to uprightness.
Benjie & Co. said Metrostate was prequalifed and the most qualified of the bidders. It turns out, Metrostate was not even registered with SEC when the prequalification started. Worse, Metrostate is not even licensed to date and only has P100,000 in the bank. (This makes people wonder who will actually finance the whole project…hmmm…could it be the beneficiary?).
Benjie & Co. said the public bidding was authorized by the city council. It turns out that all resolutions adopted by the city council pertinent to the issue were: Resolution 5343-2006 – Declaring the City’s Strong Intent to Claim the city’s Rights and ownership over the Magsaysay Market, and Resolution 5406-2006 – Adopting the Magsaysay Park Development Project a Priority Program of the city government.
Benjie & Co. said the Regional Development Council endorsed the move of the City Development Council adopting the project, and thus paved the way for the implementation of the bidding process. It tuns out that the RDC endorsement was dated November 28, 2006, six months after CDC sent its approval and four months after the bidding process started.
Above board? Ok, Benjie & Co., let’s see more documents to see you sink deeper inside a full Malabanan tank.
Meanwhile, I’m crossing my fingers that Councilor Guadiz will come true to form finally and scrupulously scrutinize the documents that will be submitted to him. Here’s his opportunity to redeem his image as a true public servant.
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MAX SOLIVEN’S PUNCHES FOR THE PUNCH. The late Philippine Star publisher-columnist Max Soliven passed away two weeks ago, and the PUNCH lost another father in him.
When my father was murdered in his office, it was “Sanamagan Max” who called national attention to the violent death of his friend, a little known provincial newsman. He continuously filled his daily Manila Times column with accounts of my father’s work as a newsman, coupled with updates on the investigation of his bloody death.
That the killer and mastermind was quickly arrested, tried and convicted, was largely a result of the pressure and influence that he and then Press Secretary Jose Aspiras (another good friend of my father) brought to bear on the Marcos government. President Marcos was prompted to issue a shoot-to-kill order against then Lingayen Councilor Rudy Soriano after the latter went into hiding.
Max (and Joe) made sure the killer did not have a chance to be protected by his political patrons close to Malacañang.
With my father gone, Max unassumingly took it upon himself to look after the welfare of the PUNCH through the years.
He never failed to write about our paper each time he got an update from us. I distinctly recall the day he devoted more than half of his column about the PUNCH. I had reported to him that the Dagupan City police had ordered newspaper stands in the city not to sell PUNCH copies owing to its incessant critical reportage on jueteng. This resulted in then President Ramos directing the Pangasinan PNP to investigate the incident as written by Max in his column.
The following day, PUNCH copies started to reappear in newsstands.
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CON-ASS DRAGGED THE CHAMPION DOWN. I truly and sincerely feel sorry for our Speaker Joe de V.
He carried the torch for the shift to parliament system for as long as I can remember motivated by the noblest intention for the country. He would have been known the father and champion of the parliamentary system in the country even if it would not happen during his time. But after those tumultuous sessions at Batasan, am afraid all that is now lost in the consciousness of his admirers and constituents.
Regrettably, he will likely instead be known as the overly ambitious and desperate traditional politician who gambled all and lost.
His efforts to painstakingly point out that the process adopted for the convening of “Congress” to form itself into a “Constituent Assembly” was in accordance with democratic principles, only served to underscore the revulsion that people felt on seeing how he and his allies railroaded the process, violating the spirit and the mandate of the present constitution to suit their political agenda.
Public opinion is now turning against him like a tsunami from Blue Beach in Bonuan. Unknown to many, he has been enjoying a higher trust level than President GMA but it now looks like he will find himself at the cellar. Sayang!
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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