Broadcaster Romy Niere has requested Bacolod Councilor Archie Baribar to investigate the proposed purchase of the closed circuit television to clear his name from the transaction.

Niere first brought up the CCTV issue during a press conference he called, where he accused certain persons close to the mayor of their alleged involvement in the transaction.

This was denied by the mayor’s private secretary, Leo Bentinganan, who said it was Niere who became interested in the project.

In his letter dated May 21, 2012, Niere asked Baribar, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Communications and Energy, to investigate the CCTV that the city government plans to purchase (for the government center grounds).

He said "The past week, my person has been subjected to ugly insinuations that I was to participate in a graft-ridden transaction relative to the purchase of the CCTV. This came no less from the city mayor in a press conference last week after I severed ties with his group.”

Niere claimed that he has not engaged in any City Hall anomaly nor intend to profit from his close ties with Grupo Progreso.

Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said the plan to purchase the CCTV came after the robbery incident at the Central Negros Electric Cooperative. But there are no available funds yet for the purchase of the CCTV and they are still waiting for any supplemental budget that will come in, he said.

Sayson said there were suppliers who have submitted their proposals for the CCTV with the building administrator. There were many who became interested in the project because of an erroneous report that the budget for the CCTV was P200 million instead of only P2 million, he said.

But they are just discussing plans to purchase the CCTV considering that they have no funds for it right now, he added.

Sayson said the Sangguniang Panlungsod had passed a resolution for an allocation of P2 million for the CCTV.

The Department of Interior and Local Government also issued a memorandum urging local government to install their own CCTV’s, he added.*CGS

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