Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim is still waiting for the reply to his formal request for copies of the text of a controversial resolution in the aftermath of the Zest Air incident that turned his Christmas celebration into a nightmare. Lim followed up on his request to Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim in a letter dated Jan. 13 to his first letter dated Jan. 3. “I am aware that official copies of the documents herein requested are already available. For one reason or another, there has been no formal reply to my request,” the mayor said. For this reason, Lim said he is reiterating his previous request with the hope that this will speed up the reply from the vice-governor. “While the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) did not waste time, in fact acted in record fashion in unanimously approving a questionable Resolution, it has not acted with the same dispatch in responding to a request that is requires nothing more than a ministerial if not clerical function,” Mayor Lim said.

The mayor complained that said resolution, authored by Board Member Cesar Tomas Lopez, “arguably has rubbed insult to the injury that I suffered as a result of the malicious allegation which has become the object of a legal action on my part.” “The prolonged wait for the documents on the questionable Resolution that hopefully will also allow me to assess my legal options is aggravating my condition,” he added. In this regard, the mayor pressed his request for the said documents “which not only have become part of public interest but more so involve my very person, honor and dignity.” “I hope that my quest for vindication and redemption will no longer be made to wait even more because of any unwarranted delay in the availability of the said documents,” he added. The mayor initially asked Vice Gov. Lim for the documents related to the controversial resolution authored by Lopez requesting the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to conduct an inquiry into the incident that allegedly happened inside a Zest Air flight last Dec. 23, 2011.

In his letter dated Jan. 3, the mayor asked the vice-governor to provide documents on the alleged stripping incident inside the airplane as a “malicious and irresponsible allegation but which was turned upside down by my critics and opponents into a shame campaign against me”. Aside from the text, the mayor requested Vice Gov. Lim to furnish him the agenda of the Dec. 23 session and the minutes of the said session. “I need these public documents so I can study my legal options in relation to the said Resolution. While the authors and co-conspirators of this Resolution feign innocence of any malice, no one can dispute the intention to subject me to further shame and ridicule during the requested query that intends to make the DILG an unsuspecting participant in the said proceeding,” the mayor stressed. Like his first letter, copies of the mayor’s letter were furnished to Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales. Aside from the presiding officer and Lopez, the board members present during the Dec. 23 session were Dionisio Balite, Abeleon Damalerio, Godofreda Tirol, Venzencio Arcamo, Romulo Cepedoza, Crispina Vergara and Doxson Asoy. Board Member Josephine Socorro Jumamoy was on official business while Board Members Bienvenido Molina Jr., Gerardo Garcia, Brigido Imboy and Ramonito Torrefranca were absent.