The electrical inspector of the Office of the Building Official nabbed by the National Bureau of Investigation during an entrapment operation at the Bacolod City Government Center on September 3, was placed by Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella under preventive suspension for 30 days.

Peter Plantillo, who was only assigned to the OBO in July, when the new administration took over, was caught receiving "grease money" from electrical contractor Antonio Jayme, together with John Navales and Gilbert Martinez.

Charges for violation of the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act were filed against them by the NBI last week but they were released Friday after posting bail of P30,000 each.

City Administrator Rolando Villamor yesterday said what happened recently was an “eye opener” to all. He claimed that the irregularities at the OBO have been happening since 1995.

Jayme said the irregular practices have been happening since he started transacting with the OBO in 1995 but it has now become “unbearable”.

Villamor said only Plantillo is an employee of the city while Navales was no longer employed with the city at the time of the entrapment because his appointment was only from August 1 to 31, he said.

The City Legal Office is investigating the matter,Villamor said.

Villamor said former City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan should not come clean on this issue because there were many things he did not act on.

He said Bayatan should not blame this on the present administration because he also had his lapses insofar as the
Unicity General Merchandise is concerned because he was not able to fight for the interest of the city government.

"I can present public documents about Bayatan's action if he will permit me to do so," Villamor said.

On the other hand, Bayatan asked Villamor,why the entrapment only happened during their administration and the person entrapped for bribery and extortion, which is equivalent to dishonesty and being a "thief”, had been re-assigned by the present administration to OBO only in July?

But since Villamor cannot explain this, all he has to do is make denials and pinpoint to the previous administration, Bayatan said.

Bayatan said Villamor should review the
records on Unicity because it was more of a family feud.

The funny thing is that the present CLO has posted at the door of Unicity a notice that the establishment was closed based on an old ordinance which was already repealed by City Ordinance 565, or the new Tax Code, he said.

What specific section of that Ordinance did they use to close Unicity? The closure had no due process, Bayatan said.

Bayatan dared Villamor to also do to Galicon, his client, what they did to Unicity.
He said Galicon has a batching plant in Alijis which is classified as mixed residential and light industrial zone. The batching plant of Galicon is considered industrial.

During that time, the CLO also acted to close it. But Villamor, who is the lawyer of Galicon, asked for consideration. Now that he is City Administrator, will he also close it ? Bayatan asked.*CGS

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