Wednesday, February 14, 2007 Tomas rallies extort victims By Linette C. Ramos & Oscar C. Pineda Sun.Star Staff Reporters With Karlon N. Rama
BUSINESS owners, contractors and investors should come out and report their complaints, as this is the only way graft and corruption can be prevented, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday.
He volunteered to help victims of corrupt practices by local government units (LGUs), days after two business owners released a DVD in which another businessman said that a Metro Cebu mayor asked him for a share in the cost of a government contract.
In his news conference, Osmeña narrated how Michael Gleissner, Bigfoot Global Solutions owner, was given a hard time by Lapu-Lapu City officials when he was starting his film school there.
Although there was no attempt to ask for money from Gleissner, Osmeña said he sensed that city officials were eventually going to do so.
“Just tell the victims to come forward and I will help them even if I’m not mayor there. Just like how I applied pressure when it happened to Bigfoot,” he told reporters.
“Or, you can come to Cebu City because we don’t do that. Not even two or three percent. Just don’t take out the parking space of your buildings. Simple ra kaayo akong requirements, just follow the rules,” the mayor said.
The mayor further said that as long as investors, contractors and businessmen are helping LGUs in employment and revenue generation, they should not be taken advantage of, as in the case of the King brothers and contractor Nelson Yu.
A group of professionals is said to be formalizing their organization in Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova to, among others, deal with their complaints against the Lapu-Lapu City Hall.
“I will not comment on their experience but you can ask them. And they will all tell you that aside from all these permits, you have to have a peso permit,” said Richard King.
‘Adopted’
Sought for his comment, consultant Richard Sison said he did not know about Bigfoot’s complaint, if any, against Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza.
In a dyAB interview, he pointed out that Bigfoot did not pull out its business from the city and even donated a fire truck before they started their operations. He added that Lapu-Lapu City declared Gleissner as the city’s “adopted son” last month.
Mayor Radaza, in a statement, stressed that illegal structures will be demolished, regardless of who owns them.
Days after the City demolished their reclamation project in Barangay Agus, businessmen-brothers Richard and Rafael King called for a press conference where they distributed copies of a DVD.
In that DVD, a man they identified as contractor Nelson Yu told the Kings that Radaza had asked for “three percent” out of a P500-million batch of government projects.
“Ang balaod kinahang-lan mopatigbabaw. Wala’y gipili kabus man o aduna-han. Benjamin Ebrada o Richard King dili kini igsapayan tungod kay sila ubos, dili labao, sa balaod (The law applies to all, rich or poor. Benjamin Ebrada and Richard King are not above the law),” Radaza said in a statement.
The King brothers will make good today their plan to lodge a formal civil complaint against Mayor Radaza.
Off to court
Lawyer Deolito Alvarez attempted to file the suit yesterday but was not able to arrive before office hours ended at the Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
The suit asks the RTC to do three things.
First, it wants the court to stop the impending demolition of the Kings’ property in Barangay Agus and, within 72 hours from the date of filing, temporarily restrain everyone tasked to carry out the demolition.
Then, it wants the court to nullify a previously issued demolition order.
Finally, it petitions the court to compel the mayor to pay damages to the tune of P52.2 million.
The lawsuit makes no mention of the P15 million that, according to a contractor, the mayor supposed asked in exchange for some P500 million worth of government projects.
In October 2005, the Lapu-Lapu City Council denied Bigfoot Properties Inc’s. request for a certificate of concurrence, one of the requirements for accreditation by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).
But the City reversed its stand the following year and, in January 2006, endorsed the firm for Peza accreditation after it promised to pay the City “all realty and business taxes due, including fees and charges for processing.”
Transfer
Asked if he’s worried about the negative reactions he will draw from officials of other LGUs, Osmeña said, “My loyalty is only to Cebu. If they don’t like that, sorry.”
Whatever projects and investors other LGUs have lost allegedly because of corrupt practices, Cebu City stands to gain.
After setting up their Lapu-Lapu City operation, Bigfoot transferred its expansion project to Cebu City’s South Road Properties (SRP), where it will lease a two-hectare lot starting next month.
At US$40 centavos per square meter a month, the City stands to earn roughly P400,000 a month or nearly P5 million a year from the lease agreement.
Aside from the land lease, Bigfoot and City Hall are also finalizing the sale of a 16-hectare portion of the SRP for a state-of-the-art movie studio with soundstage.
Osmeña recalled that when Bigfoot was constructing a film school in Barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City, some certification papers and endorsement from the city mayor were not released.
The documents were needed for them to import equipment and other technology tax-free.
“They were really giving Mr. Gleissner a hard time and I suspected I knew where it was going to. I don’t think money was ever collected from him but it was very clearly headed to that direction. They just let the businessman sweat it out,” Osmeña said.
Lawsuit
Apart from Radaza, impleaded in the Kings’ lawsuit are Teodulo Ybañez, Manuel Tumulak, Julito Cuizon, Vincent Joseph Lim and some personalities that have yet to be identified.
Ybañez is the Lapu-Lapu City administrator while Tumulak, Cuizon and Lim are the city assessor, city engineer and city attorney, respectively.
Central to the suit was Radaza’s move to have the Kings’ Barangay Agus property demolished last Feb. 9, 2007.
“The illegal demolition and destruction of the property of the plaintiff (J. King & Sons) is ongoing and continuing and the unlawful invasion, encroachment and disturbance of the property rights of the plaintiff is continuing up to the present perpetuated by the defendants with the indispensable cooperation and participation of armed men,” the complaint read.
They stressed that the construction of their structure in Agus was covered by permits, including an environmental compliance certificate from the environment department.
