The spokesperson of Dynasty Agri-Aqua Corporation yesterday said they welcome the move of Mayor Monico Puentevella to create a team that will investigate the 7-hectare property in Brgy. Felisa, Bacolod City purchased by the city from the Lopez family for a sanitary-landfill.

Roy Lopez, however, said he believes the probe team is highly illegal because it is the Mayor who will control it.

Puentevella should ensure that the probe team is impartial and will not serve his wishes the way he wants the investigation to be concluded, Lopez said.

Lopez also said he welcomes the probe team very much because the mayor is creating an investigation body apart from the recognized investigating body of the government, which is the Ombudsman and the National Bureau of Investigation.

“But Puentevella should create an investigating body which is for the people and by the people, and not from the Mayor and for the Mayor, which means that he will be the judge, jury and executioner,” he said.

He said the very witness that the mayor can use is the contract that both parties, their company and the city government, agreed on before, citing the Deed of Conditional Sale. This was in reaction to the challenge of the Mayor that they should become state witnesses against those involved the purchase of the 7-hectare Felisa property.

“When we talk about state witness that is tantamount to a criminal case. It seems that the Mayor has too much of the so-called criminal cases in his mind because, in reality, he has so many of it,” Lopez said.

An executive assistant to the Mayor, Sarah Esguerra, claimed that the property purchased by the city from the Lopez family is overpriced by P5,476,280.

City Assessor Maphilindo Polvora, however said it is clear that the property is residential land under City Ordinance 216, series of 1998. And a certification was issued by the City Planning and Development Office that it is a residential land.

So there is no conflict, because the City Assessor’s Office assesses a property based on actual use only, for purposes of paying real property taxes, Polvora said.

DISMISSED BY OMBUDSMAN

On their claims that the purchase is anomalous, Polvora said “Overprice is only a product of their wild imagination because we have already discussed this so many times. And besides, the case filed by Esguerra against them has already been dismissed by the Ombudsman a long time ago. And the dismissal of the Ombudsman, under the law, is final, he said.

This case has long been dead but is just being resurrected for political purposes, he added.

Polvora also said there is no pending case before the Ombudsman involving the purchase of the property.

“We stick to our appraisal report which is fair and reasonable, compared to prices of residential properties in the hinterland areas of Kabankalan which is at P350 per square meters and a property in Bago City adjacent to the dumpsite which costs about P450 per square meters,” he said.

Polvora said the Felisa property was bought at P340 per square meters.

So, all in all, the property they bought in Bacolod City, a highly urbanized city and center of trade, is still reasonable. So where is the overprice? He asked. It is only an issue of COA and the decision of COA is not final and executory, he added.*CGS

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