I accuse Mayor Lim

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

I WISH to thank Mr. Francisco J. Mejia for taking to time to write and mail a letter to me to express his thoughts on the worsening state of corruption at the Dagupan City hall.

He wrote,  “I was wrong with the impression that at last we have the Mighty 8″, very disgusting, very shameful, for 30 pcs of silver, they sold their souls. “What profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul,” he added.

I am certain Mr. Mejia now counts among thousands who share the same disappointment towards Onor-onors Chito Samson, Jess Canto, Karlos Reyna, Alvin Coquia and Dada Reyna, of the once Mighty 8.

Then, a concerned Dagupeño sent the following text to my 0928-8614110 phone re the sanitary landfill scam: “Un pong Awai lot nabayaran ng Dagupan ng P16M pero hindi natitoluhan, ask ko lang po, ano po ginawa ni Atty. Baniqued that time, db sya pa legal?

Correct ka diyan! Then City legal officer Geraldine Baniqued never officially talked about the legal status of the 30-hectare Barangay Awai farmland. Her successor Atty. George Mejia (under Mayor Al Fernandez’s term) was at a loss when he received a notice of judgment transferring ownership of the land to the farm tenants. Was she an accomplice in the cover-up conspiracy that robbed the city of P16 million in broad daylight?

To Atty. Baniqued, now the provincial legal officer – you owe the people of Dagupan an explanation!

Meanwhile, the new “minority” (Councilors Maybelyn Fernandez, Alfie Fernandez and Jigs Seen) in the city council should already file a long overdue resolution demanding an investigation on the status of the ownership of the Awai farmland. Call in Mr. Cuna, Mr. Mata, City Auditor Ofelia Celi, City Legal Officer Roy Laforteza, Atty. Mejia, and DAR officials to shed light on Mr. Lim’s claims or lies!  O takot pa rin sila? O, totoong na P1.5 M na rin sila?

Perhaps some of the brand new onor-onors can grab this opportunity to redeem themselves and file the resolution or join as co-authors. Why not? Never too late!

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DECEPTION. Meanwhile, here’s my response to the radio plugs of Mr. Lim, explaining himself ad nauseam after VM Belen Fernandez branded the special session that he called three weeks ago granting him authority to negotiate the sale of the Mc Adore and the Calasiao property, as illegal.

Anyone listening to him could believe that his arguments explaining how the sale of MC Adore and Calasiao properties will be conducted are, indeed, plausible. I tell you, this Mr. Lim is extremely good at the game of deception.  First of all, he only articulated what he defined as legal procedures only on hindsight after The PUNCH exposed the scheme and the obscene manner with which the resolution was railroaded by the brand new onor-onors in sanggunian. If the tedious procedure he describes today was the intended plan, it should have been discussed and outlined in the resolution before it was hastily passed but it wasn’t because this obviously was not the plan. The plot was to ram the brief, all-encompassing authority that was simply lifted from the letter of Mr. Lim down the Dagupeños throats believing nobody would witness it, but The PUNCH did to the plotters’ consternation. In fact, the “special session” that only took 5 minutes did not even attempt any deliberation on the procedure. (Note: The opening prayer of Onor-onor Alvin Coquia seeking Divine guidance took much longer than the ‘fixed’ voting by the cabal of onor-onors).

His taped-diatribe also sounded like a broken record.  To refresh the reader’s mind, the procedure he described was essentially the same procedure he adopted when he orchestrated the purchase of the 30-hectare property in Barangay Awai in San Jacinto. The procedure was legal, no doubt, but the machination to defraud became evident after the fact. Nothing new there except that this time he wants the city to sell, not to buy.

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THE GOOSE AND THE GANDER. To be fair, I cannot but agree with Mr. Lim’s business credo that non-performing assets must be disposed of. Undoubtedly, Mr. Lim is an excellent businessman but lest he forgets, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

So adopting his own premise, I dare him to negotiate and sell the original non-performing asset – the 30-hectare property in San Jacinto – before proceeding with the MC Adore and the Calasiao property! (Do I hear the onor-onors in the Tyranny of 9 objecting to the sale this time? I won’t be surprised).

Let’s see how he can sell that non-performing asset. Never mind that he reneged on his promise to build a sanitary landfill for the city to justify the overpriced purchase. (Note: Mr. Lim also promised to make the MC Adore a performing asset by converting it into a new city hall-cum-office building for government offices when he justified the P50 M loan for its purchase).

So, go ahead Mr. Lim, make the sale even for just P16 M!  I pray one of his business associates will buy it but don’t bet on it!

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CHALLENGE. A confident Mr. Lim is hot for a public debate to better impress Dagupeños on his “vision” of a shared responsibility, and I believe he should be obliged. (Note: He again aired his challenge to VM Belen to a debate on her claimed illegal status of the special session). So, why don’t I give him a practice round?

Mr. Lim, let’s you and I debate in public on the Barangay Awai land scam. Name the place, date and time. Kahit isama mo sa tabi mo lahat ng mga onor-onor mo at mga PR lapdogs mo disguised as journalists para sumagot, kung hirap kang sumagot, that’s ‘OK by me’! Not to worry, I wont touch on your and their SALNs and bank accounts. (Of course, do not expect BSL’s PR stooges to echo this challenge in their publications and radio programs!).

I ACCUSE. But if Mr. Lim refuses to debate with me for any reason, perhaps he would have at least own up to his moral accountability to state his position on the question below for the Dagupeños’ appreciation:

Mayor Lim, if the city does not have the title, why haven’t you filed a case against your business associate Jose Mariano Cuna to compel him to return the city’s money since he has not delivered the title? If you insist that there was no scam that victimized the city, then I challenge you to submit the title to the sanggunian next week! No fake title, please!

Failing all that and until Mayor Lim has shown to the people of Dagupan that the title to the San Jacinto property is in order, or has taken serious steps to make the city recover the city’s P16 M, I accuse him and his onor-onors (that included then Onor-onor Vlad Mata) of having plotted during his first term to defraud the city government!

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