Opposition Councilor Zenaido “Djingo'' Rama yesterday rose to the occasion to own up his role as legitimate investor of a bingo joint located at the Island City Mall following a privilege speech rendered by an administration colleague which hinted of bribe money paid to city lawmakers. Rising on the question of personal and collective privilege, City Councilor Danilo Bantugan cast doubts on the propriety of all members of the Sangguniang Panglungsud who were alleged to have accepted funding support from the bingo operator in the name of “for the boys”. Bantugan and Rama took turns in making their own privilege speeches during the SP session Thursday delving on issues that were diametrically different to each other. Bantugan highlighted his speech on the bingo issue where he insinuated of a rumor going the rounds of the city's watering holes about the alleged involvement of a member of the august body in the operation of a popular amusement center in this city. It turned out that the amusement center referred to is a bingo joint inside the ICM.
Feeling alluded to in Bantugan's speech, Rama called up the weekly radio program “Ang Mayor sa Dakbayan” during yesterday's edition and corrected his colleague that he was not a protector but as an investor. The radio program discussed at length Bantugan's privilege remarks entitled “Who is the Protector? In an effort to shed light on the issue of making all the SP members suspects in the bribe accusation. This precipitated a sharp reaction from Councilor Anne Mariquit Oppus challenging Bantugan to name names in order to spare the innocents and punish the guilty. Bantugan refused to elaborate on Oppus' repartee.
INVESTOR
According to Rama, he invested P500,000 in the bingo operations through its owner, the Cagayan de Oro-based Lemketkai. But sources close to City Mayor Dan Neri, who had since the kagawad's sworn enemy, said they have no argument against the councilor's alleged investment. They said what they were after was the allegation that Rama reportedly asked for protection money from the bingo operator supposedly for distribution to all SP members. Insinuations of “for the boys budget” cropped up after city hall discovered that the bingo joint was not paying the right amount of taxes. This was where the allegation of bribe money came into the picture as Rama as an investor took upon himself to reportedly assure the amusement center owner that he would take care the operations of inquisitive city councilors if hush money were available. The operator reportedly coughed up the needed amount.
But not one of the 11 city councilors admitted having been a recipient of the bribe budget. This prompted Bantugan to ask for a fact-finding investigation to be headed by City Legal Officer Doni Piquero. Dropping broad hints on the suspect's identity, Bantugan assured his radio audience yesterday that he can produce incriminating evidence including pay-to-cash checks given to a council member. The money which was eventually encashed by the bearer was for payment for some tax discrepancy of the bingo operations while a good part went to the pocket of the one who assured that he would take care of “for the boys”. According to Bantugan, once a full blown investigation was in order, the bingo operator is willing to show the returned checks paid to one of the council members and the ledger showing the cash disbursement. As for Rama, he also admitted in his radio call that he had since divested his P500,000 investment in the joint. The opposition councilor also admitted that “he earned a little” out of his investment.
RAMA'S SPEECH
In what seemed to be a battle of privilege speeches during Thursday's session, Rama made known his disgust concerning the manner in which the city government is managed and controlled by the present administration. Harping again on the issue of unliquidated cash advances and the alleged missing vouchers which were the subject of a previous privilege speech, Rama lamented the fact that until now it has not yet been appropriately addressed and acted upon. He said it was noteworthy to stress that he was taken aback when it reached to “my senses that the amount of the city's unliquidated cash advances has bloated to a sum of the more than P20 million and that 22 vouchers amounting to P7.9 million were purportedly missing. However, when confronted the issue of the so-called missing vouchers, City Accountant Kurt Adolf Bungabong came up with his own explanation that there was no truth to the accusations. In fact, Bungabong, a lawyer-CPA, per his records, the case of the vouchers which were suspected to be lost were actually up for transmittal to the Commission on Audit or have been transmitted already to the same office.
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