Carmen councilor slams hasty exoneration of sec

Carmen councilor Gerard Villamor has expressed surprise over the immediate exoneration of the town secretary who allegedly inserted "illegal provisions" into the water supply deal between the Ayala consortium and Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

In an interview over dyLA, Villamor said he was surprised that the result of the investigation came out too soon after he filed a complaint against municipal secretary Rey De Dios only last week.

He said the ad hoc committee might have hastily done the investigation during the council's regular session on Monday, complaining that he was not even consulted for some insights.

Nevertheless, Villamor said he now leaves the case to the town residents.

Villamor, who was recently stripped off of his committee chairmanship, called for an investigation of De Dios in relation to some provisions in the contract of the controversial P2 billion water supply deal that are deemed disadvantageous to the municipal government.

Although a report on the issue has yet to be submitted to the vice mayor, De Dios already revealed in a text message to dyLA the result of the investigation based on his talks with Councilors Vicente Tacocong, Jr. and Maximiano Into Jr., two ad hoc committee members.

De Dios was reportedly cleared by the ad hoc committee from alleged insertion of some provisions into the deal. The committee findings showed the Ayala consortium, being the proponent, could have inserted the fabricated provisions into the contract.

Councilor Isabelo Apor, who chairs the ad hoc committee, confirmed that their investigation showed that De Dios had nothing to do with the "illegal insertion" of some provisions.

Apor, however, said the decision was only verbal and should have been reported first to the vice mayor, the council presiding officer, in a written communication before it would be made public.

Apor said the committee had agreed that De Dios has no hand in the illegal provisions inserted into the contract, as he was not authorized to encode the terms and conditions.

De Dios, according to Apor, also divulged this information to Ombudsman director Virginia Palanca Santiago.

Apor admitted that the contract contained provisions that are not covered in the resolution approved by the municipal government, adding that the party that drafted the contract may have inserted the provisions, in apparent allusion to the Ayala consortium.

He pointed out that the contract should have been reviewed by the mayor and vice mayor before its approval. - Cristina C. Birondo