A parallel action is now being taken by the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) to make contractors of the past Brian Lim administration accountable for unfinished projects and those completed with low-grade standards.

Mayor Belen Fernandez, speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, personally nixed the statement made by one of Lim’s contractors, LXS Construction, owned by Alex Siapno, that the city government can no longer run after his company because it is already bankrupt.

Fernandez said that the City Legal Office had been writing Siapno and his firm for three years because his projects at the Malimgas Public Market were not completed to the prejudice of market vendors and consumers.

The company abandoned its projects as soon as Fernandez began her term on July 1, 2022, after defeating Lim in the May 2022 elections.

After failing to get a response from the Siapno company, the city legal office turned to the insurance company that posted a surety bond as a guarantee for the contractor, and verified that the company’s surety bond had already expired.

This means the bond could no longer be used to cover the damages done by the company to the city, Fernandez said.

“I don’t think Mr. Siapno’s company has gone bankrupt. It was because a few months ago I heard he went on a vacation abroad,” she told the newsmen.

The tables of fish vendors that were topped by just ordinary galvanized iron, the abandoned comfort rooms, as well as the frontage of the market that needs to be leveled up with the height of Galvan St. are among the items under the LXS Construction contract.

“We are willing to complete the unfinished project of the contractor, but it will all depend on the report of the COA, and also of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, whose committee on laws, ordinances and judiciary headed by Atty. Jose Netu Tamayo, already invited Siapno and other contractors to a series of committee hearings about their contracts,” the mayor said.

During the SP’s July 7 session, Tamayo asked City Engineer Josephine Corpuz to submit the list of contractors and their owners, including their respective addresses, who may be invited during committee hearings to shed light on their still unfinished projects: CCTVs, laptop computers, and new and refurbished motor boats.  (Leonardo Micua) 

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