The Balili property from the Governor’s view

We’ve already pointed out in few columns ago that the political kettle in Cebu Province has boiled to the point that the protagonists, Liberal Party gubernatorial bet Hilario “Junjun” Davide, III and Vice-Gov. Agnes Magpale have gone to the extent of filing graft cases against Gov. Gwen Garcia before the Office of the Ombudsman on the Balili property development.

Come now, aren’t we getting a bit sick and tired of the daily tirades, especially coming from the paid hacks or broadcast blocktimers of the Liberal Party. Don’t they have anything else to pin Governor Gwen down? If the Governor is corrupt as they paint her to be… surely she’d have other projects that they could bring out in the open. But then, they have nothing but the Balili property and yet day in and day out… they spin their yarn… hoping that the Cebuano electorate would believe their charges.

Pissed that things were going out of control, Gov. Gwen F. Garcia called for a public presentation of the Balili property at the Summit Hall of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) where she spoke for more than two hours. We know that politicians love to talk… and many of them talk a lot about nonsense. Call it a counter offensive by the Governor if you will or a proactive response to the daily tirades by her challengers and she immediately went for the jugular.

To the accusations whether the Balili property development was illegal, she showed documents signed by both Magpale and Provincial Board member Arleigh Sitoy giving her authority to develop the Balili property. There was a document that showed that the annual budget of the Province of Cebu for the Year 2010 earmarked a P60 million for this property. For the Year 2011, it was P150 million and for the year 2012, it was P170 million. On this issue alone… if both Magpale and Sitoy insist that this is illegal, then both of them should also equally be charged with the Governor for not opposing these appropriations when they were deliberated in the session hall. Alas, these two were conspicuously absent in yesterday’s public hearing where we could have questioned their role on the Balili property.

Again, that was a public presentation, but her accusers did not show up. But there was one person who questioned the Balili property that Gov. Garcia acknowledge, that’s Mr. Cris Saavedra. I also saw the daughter of the late Vice-Governor Greg Sanchez, Ms. Gigi Zaballero, distributing leaflets while the Governor was making her presentation. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that paper she quietly was giving away. For sure, she was trying to sway the jam-packed Summit Hall to listen to their lies. But the crowd was intently listening to the Governor’s presentation. Someone commented that Ms. Zaballero shouldn’t have done what she was doing in respect to the Governor.

Gov. Garcia then showed certain provisions in the Local Government Code or R.A. No 7160, specifically on Sec. 346 which states, “Disbursements shall be made in accordance with the ordinance authorizing the annual or supplemental appropriation without the proper approval of the SP. On Sec. 22 (C) it states, “Appropriation refers to authorization made by ordinance. So this provision settles the argument that it was not necessary for Gov. Gwen to go back to the Provincial Board for the continued development of the Balili property which the Board already approved unanimously, which includes both Magpale and Sitoy. So this settles the issue of illegality.

The Governor in a way challenged the Vice-Governor to admit in public whether she too went back to seek the approval of the Provincial Board when she disbursed her Provincial Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to her constituents in the 5th District. Call it a twisting of the turn of events when the Governor now used the same argument that there is no need to get authority of the board when the project is already approved.

When she became Vice-Governor, Agnes Magpale had her own PDAF where she did not seek any request to the SP for authority to disburse funds to her constituents. Gov. Gwen used the summary of projects in the 5th District where there was no need to request or authority from the SP that amounted to P482,302,169.10 from the year 2005 to 2012. These are facts and figures complete with documentary evidence that is very hard to refute.

At this point, I would like to hear what the other side would say about Governor Garcia’s counter offensive yesterday. But allow me to warn the protagonists… that they too must come up with their own documentary evidence and not mere idle patter. After all, the protagonists both come from the Liberal Party whose titular leader has professed to his theme “Daang Matuwid”. This means everyone should be telling the truth about the Balili property and not peddle lies…something that we Cebuanos are sick and tired of hearing on the airlanes. I dare say it is time to be proactive in our politics and not result to mudslinging and outright lies.

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