"I am very confident that the case involving the release of the P59 million fund paid by the city to the contractor for the government center project will not go anywhere, just like the previous one filed against us," Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.

Leonardia, Vice Mayor Renecito Novero, Councilors Greg Gasataya, Dindo Ramos, Al Victor Espino, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Homer Bais, Napoleon Cordova, Arturo Parreño and Marx Louie de la Rosa, acting City Treasurer Annabelle Badayos, acting City Accountant Eduardo Ravena, acting City Engineer Belly Aguillon, City Budget Officer Luzviminda Treyes and Hilmarc's Construction Corp. president Efren Canlas, are the respondents in the criminal case for violation of the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and administrative charges for grave abuse of authority and grave misconduct filed by Victor Eduardo and Sancho Nagar Sr. before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

Eduardo is a retired policeman while Nagar is a former executive assistant of both former mayors Oscar Verdeflor and Luzviminda Valdez.

The complainants also filed a motion to amend their first complaint against the officials on the government center project to include members of the Bids and Awards Committee.

Leonardia said it is clear that the city officials have followed all the legal processes. "I am just appealing to their conscience, to stop sabotaging the government center project because this is what the people want," he said.

Former Councilor Archie Baribar said he believes the whole project will collapse because it has no approved funds and that the basis of the project is the loan from the bank.

The complainants claimed that the Sangguniang Panlungsod has not approved any budget appropriation for the project.

But Leonardia said that the issue that there is no appropriation ordinance is very flimsy, "According to the rules of procedures, as soon as an appropriation ordinance is approved, that is as good as it is approved," he said.

City Legal Officer Allan Zamora said their stand is that, when the SP ratified the loan agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines for P400 million for the construction of the project, that was already an approved budget for the contract.

"You don't plan a government center project and say it is subject to availability of funds," Leonardia said. "That is stupid," he said. But because that is their mentality, that might precisely be the reason why no government center project has ever been constructed before, he added.

Leonardia said the complainants were saying that the project is overpriced even before its construction started. Competent authorities are the ones who should say that, not people who have a political agenda, he said.

In the decision rendered by the Regional Trial Court on the previous case, Judge Rodney Bolunia even praised the officials, saying that a leader has to take risks, Leonardia said. If a leader will not take risks, there will be paralysis in the government, he said, quoting Bolunia.

Last month, Bolunia had dismissed a case seeking the nullification of the contract between the city and Hilmarc's Construction Corp filed by the group called Kabalaka against the city officials.

"If we had been afraid of them, or allowed ourselves to be fooled by them, nothing would have happened," Leonardia said. "I'm sure the people are with us because we are taking risks for their benefit, and, then, also because we believe in the project," he said.*CGS

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