Dagupan mayor suspends negotiations for landfill site

DAGUPAN CITY — Mayor Benjamin Lim announced yesterday that he was suspending the negotiations for the controversial purchase of a property in nearby San Jacinto town for a planned landfill.

This, after a local weekly, The Sunday Punch, claimed that the deal "stinks" because the city government was buying the piece of land at a price more than double its market value.

"My name and my reputation are important to me. I do not want insinuations that I made money out of this deal," Lim said.

"I am suspending all negotiations for the lot for one whole month to give way to you to provide the city with a lasting alternative solution (to the garbage problem)," he added.

Lim, however, said that if critics of the 30-hectare landfill project in Barangay Awai in San Jacinto cannot provide a good alternative solution after a month, they should "shut up once and for all, and allow us to do this best available option and to give relief to our long suffering people in Dagupan City."

The Sunday Punch exposed the deal after the city council unanimously passed last Feb. 7 an ordinance ratifying the proposed deed of absolute sale worth P16.1 million for a 299,932-square-meter piece of land in San Jacinto to the city government for its use as landfill site.

The local weekly, published by Ermin Garcia Jr., however, said the market value of the lot, owned by a business associate of Lim, Jose Mariano Cuña, is estimated at P25 per square meter. But the ratified absolute deed of sale pegged the buying price at P53.75 per square meter.

Lim, in his press conference, bewailed at how some prominent people from Dagupan are blocking the landfill project.

He cited San Jacinto councilor Joy Tabar, who is residing in Barangay Bonuan here, who he said is agitating the people of San Jacinto to oppose the project. He wants Tabar declared a persona non grata.

Garcia, however, said Lim was evading the issue. "It is a ploy to shift the burden and responsibility from himself. He knows that nobody but the government can identify such a location," he said.

Lim also denied that Cuña is his business associate. He challenged Garcia to present proof that he has any business dealings with Cuña. — With Cesar Ramirez