Dads staying away from possible suit

THE city engineer of Dagupan City has laid it out plain and simple: It is illegal. But the public wonders why the construction continues unhampered.

The construction work at the former Magsaysay Park for a tourism park complex has been going on for about 60 days now without the required building permit and is, therefore, in violation of the National Building Code, City Engineer Virginia Rosario told The PUNCH.

Rosario said the MetroState Realty Corporation, the supposed winning bidder for the project, still has to comply with the requirement to submit the necessary documents despite repeated reminders from her office, to complete the processing of the company’s application for a building permit.

She pointed out that although the construction is deemed illegal, her office cannot proceed in demolishing or stopping the construction owing to the proviso in the Building Code that when a building does not have a building permit, the owner thereof can simply be slapped with penalties and surcharges.

One of the documents required for submission is a copy of the resolution of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) authorizing outgoing Mayor Benjamin Lim to enter into contract with the MetroState.

The SP approved a resolution authorizing Lim to enter into contract with MetroState in a special session of the council on December 19, 2006, but the same resolution has been withheld by the members of the city council owing to the failure of the resolution sponsor to comply with the conditions set for its passage.

One of the conditions set is for the copy of the minutes of the special session when the resolution was approved, signed by the councilors who approved it, to be attached to the resolution to be sent to the mayor’s office.

At presstime, some of the members of the city council who approved the resolution have indicated that they will not affix their signatures to the minutes of the special session until the committee report that justified the bidding conducted by the Special Bidding and Awards Committee over the project shall have been signed by its chairman, Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III.

So far, no SP session has been called for the duration of the 45-day campaign period, to settle this pending issue.

Last Monday, only Councilors Guadiz and Michael Fernandez showed up for the SP regular session.

Meanwhile, three of the reelected councilors who approved the resolution are reportedly no longer inclined to sign the resolution endorsing the controversial tourism project.

With only five sessions left before the next set of  Dagupan City  officials take over on July 1, city hall sources say the present SP will likely suspend action on the matter to preempt the filing of a complaint  before the Ombudsman by Sinag ng Bayan Foundation, an anti-corruption group.—LM

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