Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim yesterday thanked the Cebu Citizens Press Council (CCPC) for sending a fact-finding team to investigate the allegations raised by the Bohol Chronicle and Peter Dejaresco. “For a change, I have been the given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and to air my side, something that has been deprived me by the owners of Bohol's biggest media organization, Peter Dejaresco and Bingo Dejaresco, for the past two years,” Lim said. The mayor also thanked the fact-finding team and Sun Star Daily for publishing the “fair and exhaustive report” in the paper's July 18 issue. Lim, however, said he wanted to raise a few points “for the sake of emphasis”. "First, Peter Dejaresco has consistently if not deliberately failed to show proof of tax payments before 2004,” he noted. The mayor said mere claims are not enough to erase the suspicion that they were given preferential treatment by previous administrations. “They now make a big deal of the payments they said they deposited but it is not for them to make the assessment of how much they owe the city,” he added.

The mayor also disputed the Dejarescos' claim that the allege harassment started in response to their exposes. “These alleged exposes have turned out to be nothing but hot air. They have gone to nearly every government office but to this day only the harassment case filed before the Ombudsman went beyond first base,” he added. Lim said it is “amazing” that while the reporting and commentaries the past two years virtually pictured him as “the devil incarnate”, the only complaint where he was asked to comment was a harassment case filed by Bingo Dejaresco. “I am not a masochist but their attacks in fact motivate me to work harder and give my best,” the mayor added. As for the alleged attacks on their workers, Lim said they are always free to seek redress before the courts of law as two of them have actually done. He noted that it has come to a point where it would be better for a neutral court or party to investigate their complaints. “I cannot make a credible investigation if I happen to be the object of their complaints,” he pointed out.

Lim said that modesty aside, he is comfortable with his public service record before his constituents, pointing to his “comfortable margin of more than 8,000 over the candidate virtually endorsed by Peter Dejaresco and Bingo Dejaresco”. “I won in all of the City's 15 barangays which was made more impressive if you note the vicious and relentless attacks against me for the past two years,” he added. Prior to the election, Lim said the results of the survey conducted by the Holy Name University showed that 82 percent of those polled approved of his performance. Lim confirmed that he and Peter Dejaresco were the best of friends before. “If he thought our friendship was enough for him to get special treatment though, he is wrong,” he added. The mayor said even his own sister had to pay higher taxes when he took over. “Over her protestations, I made the proper assessment because I always believed that no one is above the law, not her, not Peter Dejaresco,” he added. As to the free time slot for the mayor's report, he said it was also given to his predecessors.

“If I knew that it was given in exchange for the unpaid taxes before 2004, I would not have availed of it in the first place,” he added. Lim said he is aware that after three years, he will bow out of office. “If I am abusive and an enemy of press freedom as Peter Dejaresco claims, it will be the end of me,” he pointed out. The mayor said what bothers him, however, is the fact that there is no end in sight for the excesses and abuses of people who find refuge as media practitioners. “While Peter Dejaresco and Bingo Dejaresco can complain to their colleagues after all their efforts to discredit me has failed, the people of Tagbilaran and Bohol have nowhere to go to seek redress,” he added. Lim, however, reiterated his commitment to serve the people of Tagbilaran for the next three years. “The mandate that they gave me in the May 10, 2010 elections is the sweetest of all not only because it gave me the biggest winning margin in Tagbilaran's history but because it was given in spite of all the mud, dirt and filth thrown my way,” he added. Lim said he is confident that objective people will give him “a fair shake”. “After all is said and done, I believe that history will judge me as it will judge Peter Dejaresco and Bingo Dejaresco,” the mayor concluded.