Mr. Ben Ebrada talks on the Radaza brouhaha

I got an email from Efrain Pelaez Jr. confirming what he told me a couple of weeks ago that he was forming the Lapu-Lapu and Cordova Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) very recently approved last Feb. 14, 2007. Finally, the businessmen in the island of Mactan have a chamber that can focus on their needs and of course their problems. Jun Pelaez sent me their press release, which is quite lengthy, but I'm sure you'll read it in the local press as it comes out.

The Chamber's initial press release stated, "There is no reason for any government official to fear the chamber. In fact, they should welcome its formation and view it as a catalyst and partner for development. Only officials with a guilty conscience will oppose such a chamber that has nothing but the development of Mactan in mind. Recently, the King brothers who are members of our chamber made a public expose against Lapu-Lapu City officials. We support them in their efforts to expose corrupt officials and practices, and encourage others to do so. But we do not take sides in their case since the chamber is not privy to the circumstances of the King case and demolition of their structures." Quite timely, I finally sat down with my good friend, Mr. Ben Ebrada at the Cebu Country Club where we both are members and he offered to give me details about the incident involving the King Brothers and how all this came about. What most of the public know is that Mayor Arturo Radaza ordered the demolition of the rip-rap and building owned by Mr. Richard King along the Agus Lagoon, in Bo. Agus, Mactan, which is now the subject of a P50 M suit, which the King brothers filed against Radaza. This demolition as the Radaza camp alleged was due to the lack of permits for the project.

In my meeting with Mr. Ebrada yesterday morning, he showed documents that were quite revealing. The first document he showed was a fencing permit done on Feb.7,1996 issued by Building Official Julito H. Cuizon. Another document was a rip-rap for Marina Development Project issued by then Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Ernest Weigle Jr. and German D. Jandayan, Asst. City Development Coordinator issued on Jan.5, 1996. These documents were accompanied by official government receipts. Tax declarations were also issued for the rip-rap and building project.

I don't know why Mayor Arturo Radaza ordered the demolition of the property formerly owned by Ben Ebrada and sold to Richard King in the year 2003, when Mr. Ebrada showed me a permit for Business and Occupation dated Aug.5, 2002 signed and approved no less than by Mayor Arturo Radaza himself. While this Mayor's permit expired in the year 2003, the tax declaration doesn't expire nor has the already approved Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), which was approved on the year 2003.

Ben Ebrada told me that there were many protest actions filed against his property way back in 1984, all of which were already resolved, hence he was given all the necessary permits for his property, including the most difficult permit of all, an ECC. Mr. Ebrada was puzzled why among the many illegal applications only Ebrada's (or King's) application was singled out for demolition. Stranger still, why was the tax declaration cancelled by the City Attorney, Pepe Berido and by the City Assessor's Office?

The demolition was his property now owned by the Kings was issued on Feb.9,2007 and completed on Feb.11th. That's from Friday to Sunday and the demolition workers even worked late in the evening. Why the haste in destroying something that already had an ECC?

In a side issue, on January 2006 Mr. Ebrada leased the property close to the property he sold to the Kings from Mr. Eng Chong Leonardo. This was contested by Leopolda Cesilio and Manuel Dy Jr. who erected barricades on the road leading to this property to prevent Ebrada from entering it. City Attorney Joseph Lim issued an order to demolish the barricade on June 2006 and when this was executed, both Cesilio and Dy rebuilt the barricade and again it was demolished last November. Last month, this barricade was rebuilt again and another demolition order was issued, but this time no action from the Lapu-Lapu City was made.

Obviously, something snapped in Lapu-Lapu City, where a demolition order issued on Jan.19,2007 was not acted upon, but that demolition order issued against Richard King was immediately acted with undue haste. It is for this very reason why we asked last Friday if the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas ought to immediately place the Lapu-Lapu City officials under preventive suspension because they are dangerous characters that for reasons unknown destroy things they already approved!