First it was only smoke, now is there a fire?

I never thought that I'd see the day that someone would have the guts, the courage or the audacity to openly declare and expose in public that Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza is allegedly corrupt in asking for three percent for four big projects purportedly amounting to P500 million! What makes this exposé even more credible is that a meeting with the King brothers with contractor Nelson Yu was caught on videotape. Of course, there are legal complications about whether someone can, without permission of the court, videotape someone to expose corruption.

However, I understand that this video footage was taken from a security camera, hence one cannot say that this footage was taken with malice as security cameras merely do what they're supposed to do, discover anything suspicious, which is why they were installed there in the first place. I gathered that Mayor Radaza would be filing illegal wiretapping case against Mr. Nelson Yu for this video footage, which I'm sure would certainly enrich Philippine jurisprudence. But filing an illegal wiretapping case against Nelson Yu might backfire on Mayor Radaza, as it would be his word against Yu.

Meanwhile, the issue on the illegal wiretap is merely a side issue to this very scandalous exposé. We expect Ombudsman for Visayas Virginia Palanca to do the job that we taxpayers hired her to do, file the necessary cases against an allegedly corrupt public servant even without a proper complainant. Of course, the Kings already made public their plan to file criminal or civil charges against Mayor Radaza.

Mind you, before this exposé became public I already heard this very same story told over and over as a rumor from so many friends a few years ago that Mayor Radaza tried to get bribe money from Richard King. This was the subject of many rumors swirling in the coffeehouses of Cebu. However, this is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I gathered that there are many more similar complaints coming from businessmen who are too scared to come out in the open because they couldn't get a business permit from the mayor, the very same problem that the King brothers had to undergo under the Radaza administration.

A few months ago, we wrote that the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) was going to pack up and leave what they already constructed in Mactan because they had problems of expanding because the Radaza administration was very uncooperative with Michael Gleissner. Was this because of the same problem in getting a building permit? It is for this reason why the Film Academy would be expanding to the South Reclamation Properties (SRP) because the business climate is much better in Cebu City than in Lapu-Lapu City.

As I have said, I have heard a lot of similar stories about businesses not expanding in Lapu-Lapu City because of this very questionable practice by the Radaza Administration. A friend of mine recently opened his business establishment in Lapu-Lapu City and bewailed that he opened up despite his lack of building permit. He was openly bitter at Mayor Radaza for not giving the building permit. What about that subdivision developer who already plunked in "grease" money and still wasn't given any permit? How many more businessmen have suffered the same fate as the King Brothers? Perhaps it would be a good time to find out how many more businessmen have problems getting their business permits just like the King brothers. While Richard King is considered a big-time businessman, I also heard that even small businesses have not been spared problems in getting their business permits. If all this is true, this practice has to be stopped as it gives Cebuanos a bad name.

No doubt the die has been cast. The main purpose of this exposé is to tell the citizenry that administration of Mayor Radaza has allegedly been mulcting businessmen to pay up or they don't get their building permit. Of course, we can expect Mayor Radaza to cry foul, saying that this exposé was politically motivated, timed to coincide with the coming elections. Whatever excuses they can find, the fact remains that those spurious activities happening in Lapu-Lapu City has been the subject of rumors for many years now. In my view, a rumor is the smoke that gives out the strongest suggestion that we may have a fire in our hands.

But in the case of Lapu-Lapu City, there's just too much smoke coming out from different parts of Mactan that this filth has now created a smog over the Lapu-Lapu City Mayor's Office. While we will accord Mayor Radaza his right to be declared innocent until his guilt is proven, it doesn't change the fact that there are just too many businessmen out there who are still waiting for their business permits to be approved by the Mayor.

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