Thursday, December 13, 2007 Lapu officials’ suspension sought
ANOTHER criminal complaint was lodged against officials of Lapu-Lapu City for their allegedly illegal demolition of a causeway located in Barangay Agus.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza was also accused of padding the payroll or keeping “ghost” employees.
Businessmen Efrain Pelaez Jr. and Benjamin Ebrada asked the anti-graft office to preventively suspend Mayor Radaza, City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim and City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez.
They also named Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus and Precinct 4 commander Felix Pacaldo in their complaint.
“Considering that the evidence of guilt is strong and given the gravity of the offense, there is a great probability that the continuance in office of the respondents could influence the witnesses or pose a threat to the safety and integrity of the records and other evidence,” the businessmen said in their affidavit.
Administrator Ybañez said the causeway’s demolition was legal because its construction lacked a building permit and there was no tax declaration to identify who was in charge of the property.
“What legal personality does he have to file this complaint, when no one owns the causeway? In our records, the structure does not have a registered owner. Why is he claiming it’s his?” Ybañez told Sun.Star Cebu.
Shocked
Aside from violating the Building Code, the causeway also runs counter to the Fisheries Law, Ybañez said, because it deprives people of access to the shore.
Pelaez and Ebrada narrated that Goldpoint Land Corp., which Pelaez owns, has applied for a foreshore lease for 13,370 square meters. That application is pending before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Ebrada is the developer of a parcel adjacent to the causeway.
They said they were stunned to learn that the City Government posted an undated notice on the causeway, which said that it was to be demolished in 10 days because it lacked a building permit and no owner was identified in the City’s records.
It’s obvious the notice was “deliberately undated” so that there would be no way to prepare for the demolition, the complainants said.
Haste
Also, no formal notice was served.
“Worse, after the lapse of the period arbitrarily determined by the respondents themselves, they maliciously proceeded with undue haste with the demolition,” said the businessmen.
That move is also the subject of an administrative complaint Pelaez filed earlier.
Pelaez disagreed with the claim that the City has no record of the landowner. He cited an approved resolution in which City Hall said it was raising no objection to their foreshore lease application.
Radaza was then vice mayor when the resolution was approved in April 1996, Pelaez said.
(While the approved resolution identified Coral Point Properties as the applicant, a subsequent clarification changed this to Goldpoint Land Corp.)
A portion of the causeway is part of a road right-of-way awarded by the court in Civil Case 0013.
More importantly, the causeway is covered by an application for special registration under the amnesty program of the Philippine Reclamation Authority, Pelaez added.
Vendetta
The demolition, he said, was “vendetta personified.”
Last September, Pelaez asked the anti-graft office to look into alleged anomalies in the purchase of supposedly overpriced computers by the Lapu-Lapu City Government for its public high schools.
The demolition took place last Oct. 19, the same day the City Government closed Pelaez’s Marina Mall in Barangay Pusok for one day.
Pelaez also wrote Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol to ask for a full investigation on the City officials of Lapu-Lapu over allegedly “anomalous government payrolls.”
Attached to the letter were the affidavits of at least 30 City Hall employees.
Among those who executed their affidavits were Carmencita Dungog and Fidela Lumongsod.
Fees
Dungog alleged she was employed for barangay office work in Basak, Lapu-Lapu. She was made to sign a contract that pegged her monthly honorarium at P3,000, although she only received P1,000.
Lumongsod, who gets the payroll of the barangay employees from City Hall, narrated that upon inquiry, Basak Barangay Captain Isabelito Darnayla explained to him that the missing P2,000 from their honorarium was shared with other barangays, allegedly as ordered by Mayor Radaza.
Asked to comment on this complaint, Ybañez said that Pelaez can do whatever he believes is right.
“Every action is possible under the sun. If he thinks he suffered damage from that issue of ghost employees, he can file a case,” added lawyer Richard Sison. KNT/With (AIV)
