THE Bacolod City Council ratified the contract of agreement between the IPM-Construction and Development Corp. (IPMC-CDC) and the City Government for the construction of cell no.2 at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa.
It was ratified during the regular session on Monday, September 17.
Those who voted in favor of the contract were Councilors Caesar Distrito, Em Ang, Cindy Rojas, Dindo Ramos, Bartolome Orola, Ana Marie Palermo, Renecito Novero, Elmer Sy, Sonya Verdeflor, Ayesha Villaflor, Lady Gles Gonzales and Wilson Gamboa Jr.
Councilor Ricardo Tan opposed the move while Councilor Claudio Puentevella was absent.
Gamboa said he voted in favor of the contract because some of the issues on the said matter were already clarified by the City Legal Office.
Gamboa had earlier requested the CLO to submit the documents on the implementation of the sanitary landfill project in Barangay Felisa.
In his letter dated September 14 addressed to Vice Mayor El Cid Familairan and City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan, Gamboa said he attached the copies of the transfer of certificate of title numbers 266343, 266344, 266345, 266351, 266356 and 266362, all bearing entry no. 37052 as annotated thereof in connection with the deed of conditional sale in the acquisition of the properties for the sanitary landfill from Dynasty Agricultural Corporation.
Bayatan said the two decisions of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas under the Administrative Case OMB-V-A-08-0318-1 and Criminal Case OMB-V-08-0363-1 were both dismissed with the conclusion that there was no criminal offense committed in the acquisition of the sanitary landfill, neither that the public officials concerned were administratively liable.
He said the decision of the Regional Trial Court Branch 45 dated January 12, 2016, in civil case no. 12-13982 dismissing the collection of sum of money/recession case filed by Dynasty Agricultural Corporation against the City of Bacolod for lack of cause of action, adding that the decision of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 7 dated September 30, 2016 dismissing the forcible entry/ejectment case filed by the Dynasty Agricultural Corporation against the City of Bacolod represented by former mayor Monico Puentevella and Dynamic Builders Construction Company.
“It may be noted that the collection/recession case was subsisting during the administration of the former mayor Puentevella and while his administration was using the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa, which landfill was acquired from Dynasty Agricultural Corporation,” Bayatan said.
He said the ejectment case was filed against the administration of former mayor Puentevella by the same Dynasty Agricultural Corporation.
“This ejectment case bears the intention to eject the Puentevella administration from the acquired sanitary landfill while Puentevella, on behalf of the City of Bacolod, was using the same for waste/disposal purposes. In other words, the former Puentevella administration properly defended the rights and interest of Bacolod in regard to the sanitary landfill, which is a clear act of exercising ownership over the subject acquired properties from Dynasty Agricultural Corporation,” he added.
Distrito had earlier said that the bidding for the P49 million contract was conducted in June.