Bacolod mayor, allies face graft charges over landfill

Graft charges were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and other local officials for alleged anomaly involving a sanitary landfill project.

Aside from the mayor, other officials charged for violation of RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practice Act) and grave misconduct were Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson and Councilors Greg Gasataya, Homer Bais, Dindo Ramos, Wilson Gamboa Jr., Al Victor Espino, Roberto Rojas, Napoleon Cordova, Alex Paglumotan, Reynold Iledan and Diosdado Valenzuela.

City treasurer Annabelle Badajos, acting city engineer Teresita Guadalupe, city assessor Maphilindo Polvora and Ester Lopez, official of private firm Dynasty Agricultural Corp., were also charged.

In the complaint filed last week by Othello Ramos and Serafin Oro Jr., both residents of the city, Leonardia and other city officials were accused of purchasing a property from DAC that would be used for the landfill project at an overpriced amount.

The complainants said the city government purchased the 70,000-square-meter property at P23.8 million, or P340 per square meter.

They alleged that such an amount was highly overpriced since another property, which is two times bigger, was offered to the city at half the price, or only P12.87 million.

The property owned by the Moya clan in Barangay Cabug was offered to city officials through Councilor Gasataya in April.

But Gasataya has immediately downplayed the complaint and claimed that one of the complainants, Ramos, merely had an ax to grind against the mayor since he was dismissed after being found guilty of an administrative offense.

He said the 16-hectare Moya property has no social acceptability because of the continuing opposition of the residents.

If the city had purchased the Moya property, they would have encountered road right-of-way problems and the sanitary landfill project would have been delayed.

“We decided to purchase the DAC property to comply with RA 9003. This is the first time the city had purchased a dump site after so many years.”

“It was only the Lopez (DAC) property that was given a notice to proceed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,” the councilor argued.

For his part, Leonardia said they bought the property because it passed through the appraisal committee headed by Polvora, which he said is the competent authority to determine the legal and justifiable price.

Polvora said the property purchased by the city was not overpriced because there was valid basis for determining the price at P340 per square meter.

“We based the computation on RA 8974 which provides that in expropriation and negotiated sale, the zonal valuation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be used as basis,” Polvora said.

He said the zonal valuation of the BIR in Barangay Felisa is P400 per square meter.

However, this was reduced to P340 per square meter considering that the site is far from the Felisa proper and the property is a sunken area, he added.