Advincula hits Sia, calls partymate irresponsible

COUNCILOR Reynaldo Advincula strongly denied he pushed for the approval of an ordinance that wrote off the debts of market stallholders, including his, as he called his partymate Councilor Juan Sia ‘‘irresponsible’’ for making such a claim.

Advincula and Sia are members of the ruling PaDayon Pilipino, the party of Mayor Vicente Emano.

Earlier this week, Sia said the market committee chaired by Advincula was responsible in railroading the approval of the ordinance. He said the then proposal was elevated to the city council even before Advincula could present the list of beneficiaries and their corresponding debts to city hall to the finance committee.

The amount of debts written off remains unclear. The ordinance did not state any amount nor did it identify the beneficiaries. But Advincula hinted in an earlier interview that the vendors’ debts had reached nearly P10 million.

But Advincula maintained that the ordinance was not endorsed by his committee.
"That (ordinance) did not come from my committee. How then can anyone say that I worked or pushed for the passage of that ordinance?" Advincula asked.

Advincula lashed at Sia, saying the councilor’s pronouncements only meant that the finance committee failed to review the controversial ordinance. ‘‘He is blaming others for the failure of his committee.’’

Advincula said the ordinance was endorsed by the City Economic Enterprise Management Board

(CEEMB) and directly came from the office of Mayor Vicente Emano.

"That (ordinance) was endorsed to my committee for approval as part of the process before it reached the plenary," Advincula said.

Advincula said at least four committees reviewed the ordinance before it was properly deliberated and approved by the council.

Sia has claimed that he demanded a list of the vendors and their corresponding debts from Advincula but he (Advincula) failed to show it to his committee.

"Sia should have insisted on it if he really wanted to see the list," said Advincula.

From Sia’s committee, he said the proposal was instead passed on to the committee on laws and rules chaired by Councilor Maryanne Enteria.

Advincula said he did not participate when the other committees tackled the proposal.

"Why did he (Sia) allow it to reach the laws and rules committee if the things he required were not met," Advincula said.

He said Sia should be held liable for allowing the proposal to be approved by the city council without the finance committee’s green light.

Sia earlier claimed he was surprised when the council tackled the then proposed ordinance given Advincula’s alleged failure to show the finance committee the list he required. But he said he voted in favor of the proposal.

Advincula said, ‘‘He (Sia) has been a councilor for quite a time already yet until now he doesn’t know what he is doing.’’

That can be read at Gold Star Daily

Charge other councilors too, Nanding dares critics

EMBATTLED Councilor Reynaldo Advincula yesterday challenged his critics to file charges against him and all the councilors who voted to write off the debts of the city’s public market vendors.

"Why only Ian (Nacaya)? Is it because he is my son-in-law?" Advincula asked. "It should be all of us or those who voted for the ordinance.’’

Advincula said his critics wanted to involve Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya in an attempt to establish a case of conflict of interest.

In April, Advincula and Nacaya voted in favor of Ordinance no. 10127-2006 that wiped off the debts of market vendors leasing stalls at the city hall-owned markets in 2001 and the preceding years. The debts of the Advinculas were among the debts written off.

Ex-vice mayor Antonio Soriano and former mayor Manolo Tagarda Sr. said Advincula and Nacaya, his son-in-law, could be held liable for voting for a city law that benefitted the Advinculas.

Advincula said Soriano and Tagarda should sue all the councilors who voted for the ordinance if they were convinced that the passage of the city law was illegal. He said he or Nacaya should not be singled out.

Only five other councilors voted for the ordinance. They are councilors Annie Daba, Simeon Licayan, Edgar Cabanlas, Alfonso Goking and Maryanne Enteria.

Those who abstained or failed to vote or were absent were councilors Jose Benjamin Benaldo, Zaldy Ocon, the then Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Benmarc Garcia, Ceasar Ian Acenas, Alvin Calingin and Alexander Dacer.

Advincula reiterated his call for Tagarda, who sharply criticized him, to sue him.
"Why don’t he file it before the ombudsman now? That’s his (Tagarda) right and prerogative," said Advincula. "I will not try to stop him."

Tagarda has threatened to bring Advincula before the ombudsman for doing business in a local government-owned property. He said Advincula would likely be the first city hall official to face a case before the newly opened extension office of the ombudsman in Cagayan de Oro.

"I’m not afraid to face him (Tagarda). If he is really serious, he should start drafting his complaint against me," Advincula said.

‘‘I’m only hoping that he will have a basis this time," said Advincula even as he mocked Tagarda for supposedly losing a case against him before.

Advincula said Tagarda would likely revive a dismissed case filed in regard to an attempt by a group of vendors to occupy stalls at the Cogon public market.
Advincula said Tagarda had sued him because he (Advincula) personally barred the vendors’ group from illegally establishing stalls at the city’s busiest market.
"Some of them forcibly entered and occupied market stalls. I was the one who barred them (vendors) being the city council’s economic enterprise head. They had no legal papers to occupy the stalls and it was unfair to vendors who acquired stalls legally," Advincula said.
Advincula’s son, Reynaldo Jr., is a stallholder. The councilor also admitted that his sister is doing business at Cogon market.
"He (Tagarda) already filed a case against me and the city, but it was already dismissed by the court because it had no basis,’’ said Advincula. "If they really have a basis, file the case as soon as possible. The ombudsman’s office is just a few minutes away."
Advincula also lashed at ex-vice mayor Soriano for calling Ordinance no. 10127-2006 ‘‘defective.’’
"Who is he (Soriano) to say that the ordinance is defective? Is he an authority?’’ asked Advincula , adding that Soriano was talking like a judge.
Advincula said only a court can declare the ordinance defective.
">Link

Magtajas: Nanding blames everyone but himself

FORMER mayor Pablo Magtajas lashed back at embattled Councilor Rey-naldo Advincula even as he denied being the brains behind an ordinance that has been blamed for the accumulation of market vendors’ debts

‘‘He (Advincula) is now blaming everyone but himself for the mess he is in,’’ said Magtajas in an interview over the weekend. ‘‘He is trying to deviate from the real issue which is delicadeza.’’

Advincula has called Magtajas the ‘‘culprit’’ and the one responsible for the failure of market vendors to pay city hall their rent. The combined debts of the vendors, according to Advincula, reached nearly P10 million because of an ordinance that dramatically increased stall rentals. The ordinance, according to the councilor, was passed by the council during the Magtajas administration.

"Advincula is already cornered so he is deviating from the real issue. He is trying to escape," Magtajas said. "What ordinance is he talking about? I don’t know what he’s talking about and I never pushed for the approval of an ordinance that increased stall rentals.’’

Magtajas challenged Advincula to show proof that would show he (Magtajas) was to blame for the vendors’ debts that ballooned to some P10 million.

"Nine years have passed and I can’t understand why Advincula would accuse me of something that’s not my doing," Magtajas.

Instead, Magtajas said Advincula should ask Mayor Vicente Emano to explain why the debts of market vendors ballooned to some P10 million.

Last April, the city council approved an ordinance that wrote off the debts of vendors, including the debts of the Advinculas, in 2001 and the preceding years. Advincula, who voted for the ordinance, said the April ordinance had to be passed to correct a ‘‘mistake’’ made during the Magtajas administration.

"He is dreaming," Magtajas said. "The issue is delicadeza, his business interests at the market. What he did is clearly a serious offense against Cagayanons."

Magtajas also sharply criticized city hall for approving an ordinance that wrote off the vendors’ debts without specifying the amount involved.

"The city council is also liable for passing that ordinance, they allowed Advincula’s debts to be written off," said Magtajas, adding that no one raised a question on Advincula’s ‘‘conflict of interest.’’

Advincula has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with his "videoke" and video game machine business at the 3rd level of city hall-owned Cogon market. The councilor allegedly maintains a stall at a lower level under the name of his son Reynaldo Jr.


That can be read at Gold Star Daily

Nanding: It's Ambing's fault

EMBATTLED Councilor Reynaldo Advincula has gone ballistic over the city’s market mess even as he lashed at ex-mayor Pablo Magtajas and his former colleagues in the city council for city hall’s failure to collect stall rentals.

But as he hurled brickbats at Magtajas and the opposition, Advincula also gave a hint on the amount of bad debts the Emano administration and its council wrote off. Last April, Advincula and other councilors approved an ordinance writing off the vendors’ debts in 2001 and the preceding years. The ordinance did not state how much the bad debts were.

However, Advincula said the vendors’ debts reached nearly P10 million because of an ordinance passed by the city council during the Magtajas administration.

It was Magtajas who pushed for the passage of the ordinance that increased market stall rentals, he said.
"Magtajas is the culprit... the debts balloooned from thousands to millions of pesos because of his ordinance," said Advincula who served as a councilor then.

Advincula said the debts accumulated because vendors at that time found the new rates exorbitant. He said vendors leasing stalls at the meat sections of the markets were adversely affected.

He said he voted against the Magtajas ordinance. "I objected and did not vote but the ordinance was approved. I was the only one who opposed."

Advincula accused the councilors at that time of approving the ordinance ‘‘without thinking.’’

The councilors then are mostly prominent figures of the local opposition today.

Advincula said Magtajas pushed for the approval of the ordinance after he created through an executive order the City Economic Enterprise Management Board (CEEMB).

Because the vendors were badly hit, Advincula said the Meat Vendors’ Association of Cagayan de Oro (Mecameva) and other market-based organizations brought Magtajas to court. He said the case reached the Supreme Court.
The case, he said, prompted vendors to stop paying their rent.

"That (increase) is the reason why some of the market vendors also withdrew from their stalls," Advincula said.
Advincula said the stall rent (1½ x1½ meter space) was only P60 before the Magtajas administration increased it to P900 and subsequently to P1,000 per stall.

Because of this, Advincula said the Emano administration decided to condone the vendors’ debts, including penalties and surcharges, in 2001 and earlier through Ordinance no. 10127-2006.

Advincula said Emano and the present councilors saw the Magtajas ordinance as ‘‘defective,’’ hence the move the write off the bad debts.

He said when he favored the approval of the ordinance last April, it did not mean that "I voted to write off my own debts.’’

‘‘It was jointly moved and jointly seconded," he said.


">Link

Ombudsman : Mindanao "Least Corrupt"

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MIKE BAÑOS / June 22) If the state of graft and corruption in the country was gauged by the number of cases filed with the Ombudsman, Mindanao would be the "least corrupt" region in the entire Philippines.

"When I started my term seven years ago, we had 1,500 pending cases," said Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Antonio E. Valenzuela. "By the end of 2005, we only had 330 cases remaining in various stages of investigation, from fact-finding to preliminary investigation. Although this has again risen to about 580, it still represents a significant decrease over the years."

Valenzuela joined Tanodbayan Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez and other officials from the Ombudsman for a two day visit here June 19-20 to address a seminar for barangay officials and officially inaugurate the Ombudsman's first regional office in Mindanao.

"When I started my term, we used to receive over 300 complaints a month," he added. "This is now down to some 80 monthly."

Valuenzuela, 66, will retire on July 2 after his seven year term expires. He attributes the decreasing number of graft and corruption filed with the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao in Davao City to the successful implementation of the pro-active preventive programs of the Ombudsman.

"In fact, I can tell you barangay officials are not corrupt," Tanodbayan Gutierrez told the 160 barangay officials in her keynote address during the one-day seminar on "Integrity Development and Public Accountability" hosted by the city June 19. She said the cases filed against barangay officials show that "the acts committed were more in abuse of authority than dishonesty. Medyo yumayabang."

Guiterrez said the Office of the Ombudsman has committed itself to "shepherd a convergence process that would lead to the formation of a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Program of Action (NACPA) that would involve many sectors, as well as LGUs and barangays, in a focused effort to fight head-on the scourge of corruption."

Acting Assistant Ombudsman Evelyn A. Baliton attributed the success of the Ombudsman in curbing the number of graft and corruption being investigated by their office not only in Mindanao but nationwide (from 12,000 to 10,000) to the two-pronged holistic approach of the "pro-active/reactive" strategy espoused by the Tanodbayan.

This includes increasing awareness of the extent of the problem by society in partnership with the media, values formation of government officials through initiatives like the Ehem! Aha! Anti-corruption cultural seminar being implemented with the help of the Society of Jesus, Integrity Development Review which aims to study "systems-based corruption prevention" in critical government agencies like the BIR, Bureau of Customs, PNP, LTO and DPWH; institutionalizing reform through the establishment of "integrity committees" with a champion in each agency, the resident ombudsman and stakeholders; and by strengthening the system of "Resident Ombudsman" by promoting integrity through the association of regional officials and repositioning their roles from policemen or spies to a group of men and women complementing the anti-corruption and prevention programs in their respective agencies.

Gutierrez admitted in her talk at the inauguration of the Cagayan de Oro regional office her inclination of a "pro-active, reactive" strategy for the Ombudsman since she took over the agency six months ago.

"Although I favor the pro-active stance over the reactive, for now the two will have to be combined, much like a pincher attack on the enemy from two directions…one strengthens the other," she added.

Valenzuela admitted to the success of the two-pronged strategy in curbing the number of pending cases in Mindanao.

"It is very difficult to recover stolen money," the retiring Deputy Ombudsman said. "Better to prevent and discourage graft and corruption by encouraging honesty and integrity."

"mike_banos_2000@yahoo.com>Link

B'non transport group slams bus firm for breaking agreement

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY ( AMOR BARLISAN / June 21) ORGANIZED public vehicle operators and drivers yesterday called on Bukidnon Gov. Jose Ma. Zubiri to step in and act on a complaint against the bus company Super 5 for alleged "undercharging."

The group’s lawyer, Eleazer Boycillo, urged Zubiri and other Bukidnon officials to act because the firm allegedly failed to comply with an agreement against undercharging signed by Super 5 owners Paul and Marieta Padayhag.

Boycillo said the ‘‘covenant’’ was made after Zubiri initiated a negotiation in Malaybalay on Nov. 7, 2005.

He accused Super 5 of sabotaging the local transport industry.

A complaint against the Padayhags has been filed before the Land Transportaion Franchising and Regulatory Board in connection with the alleged fare undercharging.

The Bukidnon Operators and Drivers Association (Boda), Vans-for-Hire Operators in Bukidnon (VHO), and Northern Bukidnon Transport Service Cooperative (BTSC) recently filed another complaint against Super 5 for ‘‘willfully and maliciously’’ violating the LTFRB’s passenger fare matrix.

"Not only did they violate the fare matrix, they also broke the ‘covenant’ that we have signed in front of Gov. Zubiri," Boycillo said.

He said what Super 5 allegedly did was and insult and ‘‘a slap on Zubiri’s face.’’

Boycillo said operators and driver of small public vehicles in Bukidnon were adversely affected. He said the practice of undercharging posed unfair competition and it ‘‘is killing the transport undustry.’’

"We have been suffering from this undercharging by Super 5 since 1992," Boycillo said.

"We want the immediate intervention of local government officials otherwise, we won’t survive," Boycillo added.

A similar complaint has been aired against Super 5 by transport groups in Iligan, Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental. The groups have threatened to paralyze much of the public transportation in this part of the country unless the LTFRB acts on a complaint against the bus company.

The LTFRB has set a pre-hearing of the case against Super 5 on June 30.

"If the LTFRB fails, we will joining Iligan and Lanao del Norte groups in their plan to stage a strike," Boycillo said.

"can be read at Gold Star Daily>Link