Lim is not liable on Awai deal – Mata

By Mortz C. Ortigoza DAGUPAN CITY – City administrator Vladimir Mata said there is no suit that could be filed against Mayor Benjamin S. Lim when he bought the controversial 30-hectare land intended for a sanitary landfill in San Jacinto town. “What‘s the case?” posed by Mata, saying Lim could not disburse P16 million without proper accounting and proper documents. “Sabihin mo mag-isip silang mga kritiko paano madi-disbursed ang pera. Dapat alam nila iyon.Meron tayong COA (Commission on Audit) that makes sure that the papers are in order (for the land) that we bought a long time ago. In other words we comply with the law,” he stressed. He explained that even thought there is no Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) because the heirs of Estrella Sangalang do not have an Original Certificate of Title (OCT), the ownership of this city to the 30 hectares lands can be found on the tax certificate in the assessor’s office in San Jacinto. The controversial land was bought by the city government from Jose Mariano Cuna for P16 million in April 11, 2002. Cuna bought it from Sangalang for P6 million in January 2002. He blamed some individuals for the aborted landfill plan in the town. “Mr. Lim bought the land with the imprimatur of the SP (Sangguniang Panlungsod) conducive for the engineered sanitary landfill. But it did not push through because of some political quarters who do not want the project implemented.” Meanwhile, Mata said it was farfetched to sue this city because of its non-compliance with Republic Act 9003 otherwise known as Ecological Solid Waste Management Act because which called for establishment of engineered sanitary landfill. “Pag hindi nag comply ang executive, mismo ang DENR na ang magpa-file ng kaso laban doon sa executive,” he said. He said when the Department of Environmental & Natural Resources sued the violators, all local government units in the country except Urdaneta City and Palawan would be in a bind. He agreed that R.A 9003 is a stupid law since the government did not study that most LGUs could not afford to bankroll multi-million pesos landfill.