CITY LEGAL OFFICER ORDERED TO FILE CHARGES

IN her State of the City Address (SOCA) during a special session of the city council of the Manlingkor Ya Kalangweran last week, Mayor Belen Fernandez cited anew the litany of corruption of the past city administration, which she said defrauded the city of millions  of pesos through “wanton greed, lack of empathy and abuse of power”.

Fernandez said the robust P1.1 billion economy that she left in 2019 was “pillaged and abused.”

“It was not the pandemic virus that swept the whole world that left Dagupan in tatters. It was wanton greed, lack of empathy and abuse of power” by officials of the past administration,” she told over 5,000 people that packed CSI Stadia on July 10.

Fernandez cited the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) and her own investigation since she returned to her former post on July 1, 2022, among these were:

1. 114 students received financial assistance from the Lim administration that resulted in the release of P2,890,500 to unqualified scholars, some of whom are not residents of Dagupan. Status of 500 unqualified scholars are still being verified.
2. The city government paid close to P1 million for two undelivered motorboats for which COA issued notice of disallowance to officials who signed the ghost delivery.
3. The city government paid P257, 958.96 business license plates only to find 2,636 in the bodega.
4. More than P8 million was spent for food as “emergency purchases” with no documents showing verified recipients.
5. In just 40 days, the Lim administration spent P53 million for the transfer of garbage from Dagupan dumpsite to a sanitary landfill.
6. P15 million worth of Close Circuit Television cameras were bought but 70 percent of these were not operational; there were no records to show where the units were installed, and payment to supplier was made in full even if the installations were not completed.
7. P25 million was paid to one contractor/caterer for food distribution during the pandemic over a 18-day period (P1.4 M for amount of food daily) . There were no records to how distribution was made.
8. An overprice of P34 million was paid for 1,242 tablets or P27,600 paid for a unit that only costs P10,000. Also, inventory showed 176 units were missing;
9. P17 million was paid for P3 million worth of medicines.
10. Public Order and Safety Office’s and One-Stop Business Center’s records of tricycle franchise and payments made by traffic violators to POSO were deleted.
11. Work on the P20 million upgrading of the Malimgas Public Market and P4 million for the provision of stainless tables for fish vendors, were abandoned by the contractor.
12. There was no list of recipients to account for the more than P245 million ayuda (P21 million was city’s counterpart) distributed.
13. The LED transparency board monitor in front of West Central School was dismantled and relocated to two areas but both failed to function.
14. The missing backhoe of the city government was found in the hands of a private contractor while dump trucks were found unattended in some repair shops.
15. The dredging machine of the city that became dilapidated was sold in an auction at very low price.

16. The contractor abandoned Phase I of the construction of a new DSWD building at Poblacion Oeste.

17. The Waste to Worth project, made available by the U.S. government through then State Secretary John Kerry at no cost to Dagupan, was discontinued.

18. The P108 plus million new city hall can only accommodate nine of 26 offices of the city government.

19. No poor family in the city was enrolled in PhilHealth in 2020-2021.

Fernandez said she had instructed City Legal Officer Aurora Valle to file appropriate charges against all the persons behind the discovered anomalies and should not stop till all the people that raided the treasury of the city are charged in court and placed behind bars.

“Atty. Valle, ilaban mo kami, ilaban su baley,”  Fernandez intoned (Leonardo Micua)

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