THE Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas is investigating Catbalogan City Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan and several City Hall officials and private individuals over the allegedly overpriced purchase of a lot worth P125 million in 2016.
The anti-graft office docketed for fact-finding the complaint for plunder that one Bernard Jake Ramos filed against Tan and several top City Hall officials.
Tan, a rumored girlfriend of former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama, members of the City Council and two private lot owners are facing a plunder case before the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Ramos, a former government worker, labeled the lot purchase as “dubious” and added that Uy-Tan’s family had close ties with the lot owners.
He said that the council passed a series of resolutions in 2015 reclassifying 80,150 square meters of land owned by Lorenzo and Alvin Laohoo from agricultural to residential.
The reclassified total market value of the property procured by the City Government was only P69.14 million, but records from the budget office showed the City paid P120,225,000 to the lot owners.
Ramos also asked the Ombudsman-Visayas to place the respondents under preventive suspension, to prevent them from influencing the witnesses, or tampering with the evidence while the investigation is ongoing. (GMD)