Friday, October 05, 2007 P2.2M damages suit v. 2 Lapu officials
THE head of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) has filed a P2.2-million damages suit against two Lapu-Lapu City officials for, among others, publicly calling him a tax evader and persona non grata.
Businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. cited how Joseph Vincent Lim and Teodulo Ybañez, in a press conference last Sept. 21, 2007, distributed a CD that contained a digitally enhanced illustration of the Battle of Mactan.
His mug shot was superimposed over Magellan’s body while the Portuguese explorer was being killed by Lapu-Lapu, portrayed by Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza.
The city attorney and administrator, Pelaez added, later falsely accused him of not having building permits for his two malls. Closure notices were “maliciously” mailed to the individual tenants instead of the mall management.
Lim answers
In a press briefing yesterday, Pelaez’s executive assistant, Jun Monzon, said demolition orders have already been issued. These may be carried out within 10 days.
Lim, the Lapu-Lapu City attorney, denied the charge in a separate interview and said that neither he nor City Administrator Ybañez committed any violations.
Lim said they have yet to receive a copy of the formal complaint but immediately downplayed it. “As long as you have the money to pay the filing fees, you can file a case. It is winning it that is difficult.”
He said he never declared Pelaez a persona non grata. A reporter once asked him if the City Government had plans of declaring Pelaez as such and he merely responded by saying it may be an option, Lim recalled.
He said the “tax evader” statement came after the City Government’s records showed discrepancies in Pelaez’s tax records. As for the notices of closure, those began with Pelaez’s own requests that notices be issued on all establishments without building permits, Lim added.
“He requested that we send notices to informal settlers in Punta Engaño. He even brought it before the Office of the Ombudsman. So I requested Engr. Silvestra Butalid (acting city engineer) to issue notices of violation.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the city’s OBO (Office of the Building Official) doesn’t have a record of his building permit,” Lim said.
Relations
Pelaez believes that the tirade against him stemmed from the MICCI’s campaign against graft and inefficiency in government service, which has included the filing of an anti-graft case against Mayor Radaza, Lim and Ybañez for the City’s allegedly overpriced purchase of personal computers in 2005.
“The aforementioned actuations, uncalled for amongst public officials and employees who ought to be accountable and transparent to the public at all times, are gross violations of the well-settled tenets of human relations,” read Pelaez’s complaint, prepared by lawyer Bernardito Florido.
Calling him a tax evader and persona non grata are “malicious imputations of a crime, or a vice or a defect” and thus actionable, said the businessman.
“Plaintiff is simply demanding for transparency and good governance. The issues concerning the useless products and frivolous acquisitions of the City... are all legitimate public concerns, which a public official who has nothing to hide should answer instead of evade,” Pelaez added in his complaint.
Security
The businessman has also sought police security, citing threats to his life following his exposes.
Pelaez went to the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) yesterday morning to meet with the security personnel detailed to him. He previously sent his request for security to newly appointed PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr.
Razon referred the request to the Police Regional Office 7 which, in turn, forwarded it to the CPPO.
Pelaez told reporters yesterday that since he filed the complaint against the Radaza administration, he has been receiving threats to his life.
Some of these were sent by email. Pelaez, however, said he will not be cowed by the threats.
CPPO Director Carmelo Valmoria, in a separate interview, said an undisclosed number of security personnel have been assigned to Pelaez, while the police try to identify who could be after the businessman’s life. (KNR/With JST & DRT of Sun.Star Superbalita)
