Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said he believes the civil case seeking the declaration of nullity of the contract between the Bacolod City government and Hilmarc's Construction Corp. for the construction of the Bacolod City Government Center has no chance to prosper.

The case against Leonardia, the members of the Bids and Awards Committee, Hilmarc's Construction Corp., and the 10 councilors who authorized the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the winning bidder, had been filed individually Friday by Miguel Carriedo, Jesus Lazaro, Ben Solilapsi, Allan Calilan and Abrahan Tingson, who are all identified with the KABALAKA group. Leonardia said it is sad that there are people who want to sabotage the project, which is a 40-year-old dream of the people of Bacolod City.

He said that, because of politics, these people will not allow the project to be pursued because they think it will be good for his administration. He said he has heard they will file more charges because the elections are coming, so the government center will used as a "political propaganda tool."

He said a case was also filed against him before a previous election regarding his project of a joint venture of the city with St. Rafael Development Corp. But he was vindicated when it was dismissed by the Ombudsman, who even praised him and called the transaction "grossly advantageous" to the city, he said.

For sometime, he said, I was politically damaged, but the people of Bacolod eventually realized that the St. Rafael project was earning millions for the city, and this was recognized by the Ombudsman.

Leonardia said that in the case of Solilapsi, his brother had been dismissed from City Hall (referring to former Acting General Services Office head Jose Solilapsi). "I have nothing personal against them, it just so happens that the merits of the case called for his dismissal," he said.

He said maybe the case concerning the government center was filed because they want to put political pressure on the Land Bank of the Philippines.

BAC chairman Goldwyn Nifras said the plaintiffs have no basis to say there was an overprice. He said all issues had been clarified before the public. "But we welcome this development so that once and for all we have a forum where it could be proved that we did the right thing," he said.

City Legal Allan Zamora said they will also raise the issue of the plaintiffs not paying the exact filing fee. In their complaint, they did not put the amount of the contract so they only paid over P6,000, he said.

Zamora said he believes they should be paying approximately P20 million in filing fee since the amount of the project is P394 million.

Leonardia said the development of the site continues and about 70 to 80 percent of structural materials have already been delivered for structural works.

He said City Administrator Lorendo Dilag and HCC are working on the required Environmental Compliance Certificate.

Meanwhile, Rolando Villamor, legal counsel of the plaintiffs, said he believes the case is very strong and that it should be filed whether or not there is an election. As public officials they should not worry about it as long as their conscience is clean, he said.

He said he did not file a temporary restraining order because he does not want the construction of the project to stop. "I just want to have the contract nullified because I believe it is defective," he said.

Villamor said one of the reasons they filed the case was that there was no specific appropriation ordinance.

How can the Sangguniang Panlungsod pass an appropriation ordinance since the city has not yet received the money? Zamora asked. It is only needed when there is an amount to be paid to HCC, he said.

Zamora said that when the SP ratified the loan agreement with LBP of P400 million, that in effect, is an approved budget for the contract. He said he also believes the case will not prosper.*CGS

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