The Legacy

Under the stewardship of the former mayor, now Cong. Jerry Trenas, the Iloilo City gov't. coffers were badly beaten by thieves. As easily gleaned, they even surpassed the atrocities committed by crooks of the previous administration.

Look, two years before the term of the former mayor ended, the Iloilo City gov't. was rich by billions of pesos in cash. The city's net book value from property, plant and equipment (PPE) was over P1.35 billion.

These accounts under the PPE are the General Fund (GF) with over P1.04 billion pesos, the Special Education Fund (SEF) with more than P200 million pesos and the Trust Fund.(TF) with over P102 million.

Despite the city government use of IT or electronic Net Government Accounting System (e GAS) which started since 2006, these accounts have an unreconciled balance of over P821 million. This is due to lack of supporting documents or no document at all.

That P821 million pesos is taxpayers money. The people tasked to handle these accounts failed to observe the official responsibility and accountability attendant thereto. But here, the mayor easily get off the hook in the mess they're in.

Another brain-cracking issue against the then city mayor was the paying of P12 million pesos to that drawing of an architect who allegedly prepared the blue-print of the future Iloilo City Hall building.

But according to City Councilor Antonio Pesina, they never see that expensive drawing which cost the city government P12 million pesos. Whether it was honestly paid in full to the architect without a portion slashed, only God knows. But this very expensive drawing has put the integrity of former Mayor Trenas in peril.

The Pavia Housing Project of the City Government for its lowly city employees is not far behind. It started in 2001, during the first term of Trenas as city mayor but ended a white-elephant in 2009. Now it is better known as the Pavia hao shiao!

Not a single unit out of the 413 houses under the contract was seen completely built. This is a story that won't easily go away. The P130 million loan for this project is believed not spent honestly for the construction but a big portion went to corruption.

Worse, while the work stopped due to the discovery of substandard materials used in construction of the houses, the mayor still religiously pay the contractor's billing in millions. It creates an impression without affirming the perception that he shares the slice of the loot because despite the residual imperfection, their will was done!

Lowly city hall employees are most sorely tempted to steal but don't. So, this corruption tainted project of the city government was brought to the attention of the Ombudsman by Atty. Romeo Gerochi, a lawyer who can no longer stomach the deliberate abuse of the taxpayers money.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez responded by sending her Graft-Investigator Virginia Palanca Santiago to probe the reported corruption in the city government housing project and to determine as to who are the culprits in this mess.

After days of questioning and rigid scanning of documents, graft-investigator Santiago was said to have forwarded her findings to the main office in Quezon City. Her report recommended the filing of cases against a number of Iloilo City Hall officials linked to the mess.

It was only a misfortune that Ombudsman Gutierrez was so enchanted by the legendary painting of Monalisa, the beautiful lady who ignored the many dreams of men brought to her doorstep. As the song goes, those dreams just lie there and they die there.

So, like Monalisa, the cases filed with the office of Ombudsman Gutierrez. just lie there and die there without seeing justice. This give me more reasons to suggest the changing of name of this office from the Office of the Ombudsman to The Office of Monalisa.”

Our next issue will deal with the Jalandoni bridge and the two flyover at the facade of UPV and the University of San Agustin at the time of Mayor Trenas. Talking about absurd legacy, with these projects constructed during his term, what more a legacy can we ask?