I CANNOT understand why congressman Puentevella has not sought a definitive ruling from the DENR’s environment bureau regarding the non-issuance by the City Engineers’ Building Official of the building permit.

Engr. Guadalupe, the building official, explained her non-issuance on the ground that Puentevella’s construction of the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center at the Regional Hospital’s compound does not have an ECC (environmental compliance certificate), and were she to issue the same would make her liable under the law. What Puentevella should have immediately done is to ask the DENR whether his project needs an ECC or not.

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Guadalupe, of course, does not mention the obvious fact that her non issuance of the building permit is because Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia does not want her to. The reasons she cited are at best simply excuses and are way off the mark. She says that before she can issue a building permit, she had to make sure that the building’s construction would be in accordance with standard requirements as to safety, etc.

These excuses have nothing to do with the ECC. For as long as the proposed construction is in accordance with engineering standards, she has no reason to deny a building permit.

Unless she was instructed not to.

An ECC, and before that, an EIS or environmental impact study, are required ONLY for projects with potential impact on the environment. And an ECC, when required, can be issued only after the EIS had been completed. And an EIS requires the services of technical people who will conduct an inventory of the life forms within the area to be affected, the direction of the wind to determine if the emissions, if any, will affect populated areas, and the topography of the project site, if it will require moving the earth or re-routing water passageways.

Mills, poultries, factories, etc., require an EIS before an ECC can be issued because they will affect the environment. Definitely not for buildings, whether new or already existing, that will not affect the environment at all.

The Bacolod Reclamation Project required an ECC, for which Palanca reportedly spent millions to obtain.

But Monico’s Heart, Lung and Kidney Center?

Preposterous!

Had Guadalupe cited engineering technicalities, such as the sturdiness of the soil in the building’s construction site, or the inferior materials that will be used for its construction, etc., then she is completely within her authority to deny a building permit. Her acquiring an ECC, where none is required, can only mean she is embarked on an errand for someone.

Who that someone is too obvious even for a simpleton.

Hence, Puentevella should obtain a definitive ruling from the DENR’s Environmental Bureau. Otherwise, he and Leonardia would continue to engage in throwing the buck at each other until they appear more than the clowns that they already are.

Aside from appearing as clowns, both Monico and Bing have one more thing in common – both are widely perceived as grafters. Talk to any man on the street and he will have only one description of the two, expressed in an emphatic way: “Mga Kawatan!”

How Monico and Bing have come to this is a tragic study in itself. Both started their public careers as mass idols. Young and good looking, both easily wormed their way into the Bacoleños heart.

Midway, however, their celluloid image began to peel off, showing them for what they really are. Both vain and shallow, and laboring under the illusion that they still retain the idolatry with which they were publicly regarded before, they performed their public functions with a swagger and a pomposity that is both funny and detestable.

Quite a tragedy for Bacolod, which is left with no other choice except to jump from the frying pan or into the fire.