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[av_heading heading=’Bing: Investigate OBO bribery claim ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia wants the City Legal Office to investigate claims in circulating text messages that the Office of the Building Official (OBO) received bribe money from a mall.
Getting to the bottom of the issue even without a formal complaint will “satisfy the curiosity of the public,” Leonardia said.
The mayor has another reason to look into the matter: This was not the first time the OBO was tagged to corrupt practices.
He directed his secretary, Edward Joseph Cuansing, to relay his request to the City Legal Office headed by Joselito Bayatan.
One of the texts sent to journalists stated that OBO head Isidro Sun Jr. issued a “fake temporary occupancy permit” and that “some engineers” received a “P1.5-million bribe for the opening of CityMall on Nov. 8.”
Another text stated the Reynaldo Tenedero, Bon Builders Corp.’s project-in-charge for CityMall, and another companion gave the money to Sun and some OBO engineers.
What Leonardia wants was an “internal action,” especially that the OBO turned out to be a major concern after a check with frontline offices in July indicated the presence of “fixers” in the office, he explained.
Certain “private practitioners and contractors,” including electrical and civil engineers, regularly conduct business within OBO premises, Leonardia said in a memo in July.
These private individuals “freely riffle through official files … as they follow up the issuance of various permits and [accommodate] walk-in clients,” said the mayor.
They reportedly use the work desks and seats of OBO personnel out on fieldwork, he said.
“This very lax situation at OBO has given the transacting public the false impression that these private practitioners are employees of the Bacolod LGU (local government unit),” said Leonardia.
“When these private people charge the transacting public certain professional fees … not covered [by] official receipts of the Bacolod LGU, these clients … pay but privately badmouth us supposedly for being grafters and corrupt government officials and employees,” he said./PN
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