Bayambang Mayor sued anew at Ombudsman

Because of Magic Mall’s contract

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BAYAMBANG – The administrative and criminally charges prone mayor of this town has

 been sued anew at the Ombudsman after he entered into a contract with 

a mall owner in violation of the laws of the country.

Under-siege: Bayambang Mayor Ricardo Camacho

Mr. Jaime R. Iglesias, the 

complainant, charges recently this town Mayor Ricardo Camacho for committing illegal use of public funds or property on 

the Revised Penal Code, contract 

grossly disadvantageous to the 

government in the Anti Graft & Corrupt

 Practices Act, and administratively violating Republic Act 7160 (Local

 Government Code) by subjecting the 20 percent

 Development Fund of the local government unit (LGU) to what it should be intended here

 after he entered in 2011 into a P100 million loan contract with the Land

 Bank of the Philippines- San Carlos City branch.

Iglesia said the acts of Camacho caused undue injury, manifest partiality, evident bad faith, and gross inexcusable negligence when he entered a contract with Magic Group of 

Companies (MGC) to lease a portion of the public market for a mall whose owner

 is the family of former Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim.

“The documents show that Magic Club was given unwarranted benefits, advantage or 

preference by Mayor Ricardo M. Camacho over the bonafide market vendors of Bayambang even before the completion of the new market building,” he wrote on the Complaint-Affidavit he submitted recently at the crime body. 

The complainant narrated that sometime in 2011 the vendors vacated their stalls in the

 old public market due to the municipal government’s plan to construct a new public

 market to replace the old one.

In 2011, the council unanimously passed Resolution No. 194 authorizing the mayor to enter

 into a P100 million loan for the construction of the public markets (Block III) which is included in the approved Local Development Projects and Public Investment Program.

In that Resolution the mayor and SB members agreed that the LBP would be the depository bank of this town’s yearly share of its internal revenue allotment (IRA) and for its other 

deposit which designation shall not be revoked while the loan obligation remain outstanding and directly the LGU’s secretary to provide a copy of this Resolution to the DBM or 

other administrative office.

Magic Club

“Shall appropriate the following amount in the Municipal Annual Budget: Loan repayment

 until the principal interest and other charges of all loans are fully paid; the required LGU

 equity; 

the repairs and maintenance of the projects and equipment financed under the Term Loan;

 the insurance premium payment; and shall authorized the DBM to deposit and remit directly the municipal IRA of the Municipal Government of Bayambang, Pangasinan to LBP for the LGU’s account,” the Resolution provided. 

According to another complainant Adela I. Ferrer who sued Camacho of the same charges 

at the Ombudsman, the town pays P24 million a year for the P100 million loans and interest at the LBP as she quoted it from the Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) of this town.

 “When the construction of the new public market was nearing its completion by the end of 2012, I was surprised by the news that the market vendors would be staying in their 

temporary stalls since the new public market building would be leased to a grocery

 chain,” Iglesia cited.

 In the early of 2013 MGC began occupying the new public market.

The contract of lease between the LGU and the MGC stipulated that the latter will use

 the new edifice as mall for 10 years starting from March 1, 2013 and ends on 

February 28, 2023 with a monthly payment of P307,625 payable every or before

 the 5th Saturday of the month.

Meanwhile, Ferrer also charged at the Ombudsman Camacho on his purchased of a second hand vehicle for the municipality from a private person without the requisite public 

bidding or authorization from the SB.

Camacho had been charged before at the same crime body on his authorization to 

transfer the 2000 pupils of Bayambang Central School to a new site after the school was

 partly burned in 2012 and the fear of dengue and flood, the procurement of the same van, 

and malversation of funds from the LGU here on the multi-million pesos of iron grills for 

this town’s bid on the Guinness Book of World Record already paid by Dr. Cesar Quimbao, a philanthropist and a resident here.