By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Former Bacolod City Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue; former Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson; and businessman Antonio Wong filed a temporary restraining order before the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court pertaining to the P1.7 billion loan the city government plans to borrow from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
During a press conference yesterday, the group’s legal counsel, Atty. Cesar Beloria, Jr., explained the civil case concerns city officials who pushed for the loan before the Sangguniang Panlungsod and officials from the DBP.
He explained, during the hearings conducted in November of last year pertaining to the loan, only a select group of individuals were invited to attend, namely city department heads, city employees, and barangay officials said to be political allies of Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
“There was no publication or information of this very important affair – not a single invitation addressed to the public,” Beloria declared.
He further stressed, following the said hearing, the proposal for the loan was then railroaded, claiming Leonardia received a letter from DBP informing him the loan was already approved.
“Based on records, there [were] no supporting documents; there was no feasibility study or whatever requirements required,” Beloria said.
Bacolod City mayoral candidate Batapa-Sigue, meanwhile, said, “as a private citizen,” she would trust the legal process.
She went on to explain the loan has become an issue with the public and the media.
“We have nothing else to do but to escalate this before the courts on behalf of the citizens of Bacolod that are asking for time to take a close look of the transaction,” she said.
She added, the loan has many procedural flaws and, as leaders of the city, they cannot brush aside procedure.
“In the interest of transparency, we are here to announce that there is such a case and we reserve all other opinions,” she added.
Earlier, Bacolod City Councilors Wilson Gamboa and Claudio Jesus ‘Kalaw’ Puentevella discussed a letter they wrote to the lending institution, where they questioned the relationship between the terms of the loan and the deed of assignment, wherein ownership rights over an amount of debt are determined, which the city officials claimed was written on behalf of Bacolod City taxpayers.
They asserted, city taxpayers have not been made fully aware of contract details, pointing out, “The borrower is a local government unit and the subject loan shall be paid by public funds.
DBP has since replied to the letter, with DBP Executive Vice President Anthony Robles indicating the matter had been referred to Senior Manager Nernardo Castillon Jr., who heads the Negros Occidental Lending Center-Bacolod.
Leonardia’s Grupo Progreso coalition responded with a joint statement, explaining, the measure obtained the required number of votes.
They also repeated an earlier point, noting, approval to enter into a loan “does not require a public hearing.”
Among the city councilors lending their name to the rebuttal included Ana Marie Palermo, who ran in the last election as a member of opposition coalition Magbinuligay Kita para sa Kauswagan./DGB, WDJ
