Mayor Durano threatens libel suit against Dosado

Sogod Mayor Thadeus "Deo" Durano yesterday broke his silence and accused former vice mayor Dean Severo Dosado, also of Sogod, for exploiting the issue on the Sogod waterworks system allegedly being contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria.

Durano, who is leaving for Manila today, said he will be filing a libel case against Dosado as soon as he is back in Cebu tomorrow.

In an interview over TV Patrol Cebu, Durano said Dosado's statement that municipal officials had pocketed money from the P32-million Sogod waterworks project is "malicious and has no basis."

"Ang problema kay gisagulan na man gyud ug pamolitika. Ang interview sa TV Patrol nga dunay nakabulsa sa project, klaro kaayo nga walay basihanan, kay ang kuwarta tua ra gyud na sa Land Bank ug dili gyud na moabot sa munisipyo. Klaro kaayo ang binuang ana iyang statement," Durano said.

The mayor clarified that it was Land Bank that released the money directly to the contractor, and inspected all equipment including the chlorinator.

"Dili intawon nga naay naka bulsa ani. Malisyoso kaayo to nga statement," he added.

Durano said the municipal government had enough documents to prove that every transaction in that project was in proper order.

"Mao bitaw wala gyud mosaler ang ilang complaint sa Ombudsman. Ang kanang filtration, si Governor Garcia man gani ang naghatag ug maong dako kaayo ang gasto tungod giusab man ang tanan tubo kay pulos gubaon gikan sa 15 ka barangays," he said.

On the other hand, the complainants against the waterworks project in barangay Bagatayam of the town said they plan to ask the Ombudsman to look into possible violations that the management and town officials might have committed following the water contamination.

Meanwhile, Dosado said he is now gathering signatures from the consumers of Sogod waterworks, which has a total of over 600 clients in six barangays, to petition the Ombudsman for a probe on this case.

"Kami nagduda nga ang filfrations ug cholorinator bisan na punta na na sa bulsa ron. That's why I'm asking the Ombudsman again kay ila man ning gi-terminate tungod kuwang sa technical procedures," Dosado said.

Dosado said in 2003 he asked the Ombudsman to look into alleged irregularities, but the anti-graft office dismissed the petition for lack of supporting documents from the complainants.

The Department of Health regional office, through the Regional Epidemiology Survillance Unit, will release its initial findings of tests on water samples taken last week from the town's waterworks to determine if there is any contamination.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources had also ordered Sogod waterworks officials to stop the system's operations for the meantime.

The Sogod Waterworks System was one of the priority projects of Durano that was funded with a P30-million loan from Land Bank. Its construction started on March 2003 and had been estimated to serve 18 barangays covering 1,080 residential households.

The waterworks system derived its sources from the spring box in Bagatayam using a 10-inch diameter PVC pipe with a primary strainer toward sump-tank no. 2, which has two 30-horsepower submersible pumps and a "filtomat" cylindrical water filter or purifier.

The Environmental Management Bureau noted that the waterworks officers have started screening their contractors -Radiant Technologies, American Water Technologies, and Van Guardia Contractor- for the installation of additional water purifiers on transfer-tank no. 2 to improve the quality of the water source. - Ramil V. Ayuman