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Friday, May 30, 2003
Graft charge eyed vs Basay mayor
By Jimmy P. Abayon
BASAY -- The lawyer for a South Korean businessman claiming to have been robbed of at least P2.2 million in earnings from the sale of scrap iron in Maglinao village, this municipality said his client is contemplating the filing of graft charges against Mayor Beda L. Canamaque of Basay.
Lawyer Hansel Anito, speaking in behalf of South Korean Noh Seok Ki, revealed this in a press conference Wednesday as he disclosed that his client has already requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Dumaguete City to investigate Mayor Canamaque for the alleged theft of his scrap iron.
But Canamaque denied the accusation against him.
Noh has also included Basay police officer PO3 Marlon A. Ybalane in the investigation alleging that the latter aimed an armalite rifle to his security guards who tried to stop him from entering the compound of the Basay Mining Corporation in Maglinao.
Anito said however that the charges that would be filed would depend on the outcome of the NBI investigation although he did not rule out graft as one of them.
He said Noh formally terminated Canamaque in a letter dated May 19, 2003 as his operations manager whose job was to handle the cutting and hauling of the scrap iron from the former CDCP mining site after discovering the alleged theft.
Noh claimed the Privatization and Management Office that took over the Asset Privatization Trust (APT) awarded him the right to cut, load, haul and sell the scrap iron from the mining site through a July 26, 2002 agreement that cost him P11 million.
Instead, he said, Canamaque hauled the scrap iron without his knowledge to buyers in Bacolod City.
The South Korean businessman claimed that his P2.2 million loss from April to May alone does not include the value of the scrap iron hauled by ten cargo trucks as of May 20.
Meanwhile Mayor Canamaque denied Noh's allegations, saying the South Korean businessmen owed him some P600,000 for non-payment of the trucking services, the oxygen used for cutting the metal, other rentals, and salaries of the workers he hired to cut and haul the scrap iron.
He said he had been searching for Noh, but could not find him and that he has filed an injunction case against the South Korean before the Regional Trial Court in Bayawan City on May 19 to prevent him from accessing the warehouse at the mining site.
The Basay mayor said that Noh had had a falling out with two other South Koreans who previously handled the Maglinao scrap iron hauling operations and with Dumaguete City-based lawyer Joel Obar from whom he took over.
Defending his client, Anito said Noh has already settled his P250,000 obligation to Attorney Obar and that the two other South Koreans-Si Lee and a certain Kang-were dismissed for "doing what Canamaque is doing."
(May 27, 2003 issue)
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