LAND DONATION FOR NEW CITY HALL

THERE was no law violated when the brother of Mayor Belen T. Fernandez donated a 1.2-hectare land to the city of Dagupan and even if the new city hall will rise in the donated property.

This was the opinion rendered by City Legal Officer Victoria Cabrera during the public hearing conducted by the committees of Land Use and Utilization and Laws, Ordinances and Judiciary, presided by Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on Thursday on the proposed ordinance seeking the transfer of the city hall/government center.

Her opinion was sought on the proposed ordinance seeking the transfer of the city hall/government center from A. B. Fernandez Avenue to a donated land in Barangay Pantal and reclassifying the same from agricultural to non-agricultural for institutional purposes.

“What will the mayor get out of it? In fact the donor (her brother Kerwin) will lose something because he is giving something to the city… and the donor of the land has a good intention,” she said in Pangasinan. “It’s the whole city, and not the mayor, that will benefit from the donation.”

She asked the committee: “So, where’s the conflict of interest? Was there money of the city government involved in this donation?”

That enabling law authorizing the mayor to accept and sign the deed of donation in behalf of the city eventually passed by the SP with just one objection – from Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia.

The mayor, however, held off signing it into law till after two weeks in order to give the city an opportunity to receive other donations from prospective benefactors or philanthropists with a similar intent for the city in any of the appointed growth area.

Meanwhile, all barangay captains endorsed the transfer of the city hall, saying that not only it is old and fast deteriorating but also flood-prone.

Cabrera said the allegation of Erfe-Mejia that the mayor’s family will benefit if the area in Pantal will boom as a result of the transfer of city hall to De Venecia Highway extension is a mere speculation in the same manner that other landowners in the area may benefit from such a speculation.

Meanwhile, City Administrator Atty. Farah Decano lambasted the position of Erfe-Mejia citing his vote authorizing the mayor earlier to look for prospective sites for the new city hall only to question it today when a donation to the city has been given.

Tamayo denied the request of Erfe-Mejia for a representative of the Ombudsman to attend next round of public hearing because he said no case has been filed regarding the donation.

“File a case first,” Tamayo dared Erfe-Mejia who denounced the donation and acceptance by the city as a case of corruption.

Tamayo also did not allow the video prepared by Vice Mayor Brian Lim who was not around, to be played during the public hearing that merely alleged corruption, echoing Erfe-Mejia’s speculations. (Leonardo Micua)

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