Hinoba-an Vice Mayor Mary Jane Cubid yesterday denied that she and members of the Sangguniang Bayan of the town were politicking and destabilizing the administration of Mayor Francisco Bilbao, and said they had withheld the P1.2 million final payment for an P8 million property he purchased because they want to protect the interest of the municipality.

On Thursday, Bilbao accused her and the SP members of playing politics by delaying the payment for the 5 hectares the town had purchased for its socialized housing project in Barangay Pook, Hinobaan from Liticia Uybico Chua.

Cubid said Chua is an in-law of the mayor's sister, Dolores Bilbao Uybico.

The Provincial Legal Office, which has been asked to investigate the purchase of the P8 million property, is sending a team to Hinobaan on Monday, Cubid said.

The municipal government had already paid P6.8 million as of August 2005 for the P8 million property.

In the contract for the purchase by the town government of the property, it was stipulated that Chua would pay for the capital gains tax, so we asked how much it was so it could be deducted from the town's final payment of P1.2 million, Cubid said.

She said the town budget officer Jose Candulizas told the SP that there was no need to deduct payment for the capital gains tax since the title of the property purchased had already been transferred to the name of Hinobaan.

However, the transfer certificate of title for the P8 million property to Hinobaan presented to the SB turned out to be fake as the Register of Deeds certified it was a title that corresponded to property in Himamaylan and not in Hinoba-an, Cubid said.

Fe Charo of the Negros Occidental Register of Deeds, had issued a certification that, based on the record book of receipts, no issuance of any receipt was made from December 9, 2005 up to March 1,2006 in favor of the municipality of Hinoba-an as payment for the registration of the deed of sale made by Chua over the property, a document furnished by Cubid to the media said.

There is also no record of payment by Chua of the capital gains tax to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Cubid added.

Cubid said it appears that the spurious Transfer Certificate of Title was issued to skirt questions on the payment of the capital gains tax.

The title of the property appears to still be in the name of Chua, she said.

Bilbao, meanwhile, said that Chua will pay the capital gains tax, based on her undertaking dated March 2004, and that there is no reason to deny the transaction.

I wonder why the mayor wants us to hasten payment when there were irregularities in the documents presented, and our job is to protect the interest of the Hinobaan town government, Cubid said.

Councilor Annabelle Oyco, sister of Cubid, said the purchased property also appeared to have been overpriced as it was appraised as residential when it is classified as agricultural in its tax declaration.

The tax declaration also states that the property is worth P300,000 but the town bought it for P8 million, she added.

She pointed out that the SP had given the mayor authority to negotiate for the purchase of the property but he was supposed to safeguard the interest of the municipality and not the landowner.

Bilbao, on Thursday, said he did not know why the SB was questioning the P8 billion purchase now when they were the ones who approved its acquisition.

We could not have purchased it without the approval of the SB, he said.

Bilbao denied that there was overpricing because the purchase was also assessed by the appraisal committee of the Provincial Assessor's Office, adding that it "actually is cheap."

He denied that he would take advantage of the town's financial resources.

PRE-SIGNED CHECKS

Cubid said she was acting mayor of Hinobaan Nov. 17 to Feb. 15 while the mayor was on sick leave for chronic cirrhosis of the liver and a malignant mass on the upper lob of his lungs, according to a medical certificate.

While the mayor was on leave, she said, the town treasurer was disbursing checks pre-signed by the mayor.

She said she called the attention of the treasurer to the matter and was told that it was a usual procedure of the mayor when he was gone to leave pre-signed checks.

If I really was destabilizing the mayor as he claims, Cubid said, I would have questioned the liability of the mayor for pre-signing checks that were disbursed during the period when he was on leave.

Bilbao, who is now wheelchair-bound, returned to work as mayor on Feb. 16.

Cubid said that while she was acting mayor she also went after those engaged in illegal fishing activities in the town.

She said it is not she who is politicking but the mayor who has publicly endorsed his wife, Ma. Theresa Bilbao, to run as the next mayor of the town.*CPG

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