Dagupan mayor charged with graft

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines  – Two separate complaints have been filed with the Office of the Ombudsman against Mayor Benjamin Lim of this city over the purchase of a 30-hectare property in San Jacinto town.  

In its weekly issue on July 29, Sunday Punch, a local paper here, reported that the first complaint was filed by an anonymous person on June 6 while the second complaint was filed on July 23 by a certain Leo Angeles. 

Jose Mariano Cuña, who sold the lot to the city, was named as Lim’s co-respondent. 

The complaint alleged that a certain Estrella Sangalang of San Jacinto sold the land for P7 million to Cuña on Dec. 18, 2001. Cuña in turn, sold the lot to the Dagupan City government for P16 million on April 11, 2002.

However, it was learned that at the time of the sale of the property to Cuña, there were several tenants in the land. The tenants had filed a case with the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) for a claim on the property. 

A notice of coverage was sent to the Dagupan City government stating, among others that the lot in San Jacinto is under the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The Land Bank of the Philippines was also under the process of determining the lot’s value. 

The DARAB placed the property under CARP after the city government failed to make any move to question the tenants’ claim or ask for reconsideration of the decision.

Lim refused to comment on the complaint, saying he has not received any communication from the Ombudsman regarding the matter.