After circuitous route, docus land in the hands of critic  The circuitous route   the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) and other documents was taking for sometime finally stopped in the lap of all people-- in the hands of its very critics specifically City Mayor Dan Lim. It will be recalled that Lim earlier wrote Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol to request for assistance regarding the availability of certified true copies on the JVA and all other documents related to the sale of the Provincial Public Utilities Department (PPUD) to the Salcon Group of Companies. “We are respectfully forwarding the matter herewith for your appropriate action,” Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Palanca Santiago said in her letter to Chatto. A copy of her letter was furnished to Lim.

In her letter dated Feb. 1, Santiago told Chatto to “kindly inform us of the action taken by your office relative thereto within 15 days from receipt hereof”. Reacting to the Ombudsman request to Chatto, Lim said this is good news for the consumers and constituents of Tagbilaran “and all those who labored and struggled for the release of these public documents”. The mayor, however, acknowledged, that it is still a long way to go for those who are seeking justice “for the highly anomalous and irregular sale that was prejudicial to the interest of the majority”. “This request is definitely a step in the right direction because it now paves the way for us to study and evaluate just how we were sold for a song by the very people we entrusted our future,” he added.  Lim also said the request was a vindication of his position that the JVA documents are public documents contrary to what Chatto and Capitol legal minds contended.

“If I were Gov. Chatto, I will fire all of them for putting me into this embarrassment,” he noted. Lim recalled that at the height of the controversy, he was called all sorts of names by Chatto’s propagandists who adopted the line that the JVA documents could not be released because it would violate corporate laws. “If I am not a lawyer, it would not have the same impact but since Gov. Chatto is a lawyer himself, it is really embarrassing,” he added. Lim said that the Ombudsman did not even have to cite a single law to disprove the argument that it would violate corporate laws. “The letter was short and to the point which is a diplomatic way of telling them their arguments do not hold water,” he added. In his letter to the Ombudsman dated Nov. 3, 2011, Lim explained that the sale of PPUD to Salcon is a very contentious issue that has hounded Tagbilaran for the past 12 years. Lim said the controversy somewhat subsided in recent years but it was revived in 2011 when Bohol Water Utilities Inc. (BWUI) collected a water rate increase retroactive to 2006 based on a resolution upholding the legality of the increase.

“We have appealed this collection not only because nowhere in the said Resolution is any provision for retroactive increase but also because it is unjust and oppressive,” he added. Lim has maintained that there are prejudicial questions that cropped up only now and which must be addressed in the proper forum to prevent miscarriage of justice and the railroading of public interest by an unholy collusion between private business and powerful political figures. The first question is the establishment of both BWUI and Bohol Light Company Inc. (BLCI), in which Lim asks that if the PPUD was sold to Salcon, “how and why did the BWUI and BLCI come into existence?” “Are BWUI and BLCI the offspring of the marriage between the provincial government and Salcon? If so, how did they come into being? Were they born under normal circumstances or are they illegitimate children?” Lim asked.