Monalisa's Secrets

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

The secret of Monalisa

I learned that Mark Jalandoni, Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon resigned from his post. Good, this writer believes he, and not Monalis… ehe, este Merceditas Gutierrez is responsible for keeping the case of the Pavia Housing Scam in suspended animation.

Rumor mills are grinding overnight that this man is the contact person of former mayor now Cong. Jerry Trenas in the Office of the Ombudsman and not Monalis… este Merci, whom we suspect the classmate of former mayor of Iloilo City at the Ateneo Law School some years ago.  

But why the folder containing the charge-sheet and documented evidence against the culprits in the Pavia Housing Scam were reported to have been taken by the Ombudsman on the premise to review it personally inside her office?

This report triggered an erroneous suspicion without affirming the perception of a strange attachment between the Ombudsman and her deputy. She is supposed to assign that folder to deputies unless she has a personal interest in the case.

If it is Deputy Ombudsman Jalandoni who have interest in that case, say for instance that he and the former mayor of Iloilo City are close friends, what power has he over a superior in ordering Merci to take care of a friend’s request by letting it sleep inside her office?

The Pavia Housing Project anomaly involves P130 million of taxpayers’ money. It started at the very start of now Cong. Trenas first-term as elected city mayor in 2001. The construction of 413 units of low-cost houses for lowly city-government employees in 2001, has ended in 2009 without even a unit completely built. 

Not only that. The project bankrolled by the P120M loan from the Philippine National Bank (PNB), was immediately transferred to the Philippine Veterans Bank at the start of the construction. Other than the undisclosed finder’s fee, the expensive documentation (kuno) has increased our liability to P132M.

But the substandard materials being used by ACE Builders, the contractor, in building the houses was discovered. This propelled the City Council to pass a resolution urging Mayor Trenas to suspend the project and sue the contractor for deliberate violation of the contract.

As a result, the project was suspended. But the mayor cannot be intimidated by a mere resolution. Being a lawyer, he knows that a resolution is a mere recommendation, as in Latin, simplex commendatio non obligor – a mere recommendation is not binding.

He ignored the City Council and continued paying the contractor despite the suspension of the project. But the issue resurfaced when the contractor abandoned the project while continue receiving payment of his billings from the mayor.

Despite the blatant violation their will was done. Worse, the city was obliged to pay interest of the loan at P17,000 per day including holidays for over a year. But not until the contractor has pocketed a P64M plus without a single unit built out of the 413 low-cost houses under the contract.

This is corruption of the highest order under the very nose of our former mayor and now Cong. Trenas. The Ombudsman should know that the simplest way to curb corruption is, of course, to do away with the system that fosters it.

The Pavia Housing Scam was filed at the Office of Monalis… este Merci Gutierrez in 2004, yet nothing has been heard about it. By allowing cases to lie there and die there without seeing justice, Atty. Romeo Gerochi is correct to suggest that the Office of the Ombudsman should have a new name – The Office of Monalisa!

This is not what we think the business of the Ombudsman is all about. Worse, instead of the deputy to review the case, it was Monalis... este Merci who took the responsibility supposed to be that of Deputy Ombudsman Jalandoni, reportedly a friend of Cong. Trenas.

What really matters in this story is Deputy Ombudsman Jalandoni’s power in making his superior look like a sidekick at one click - to handle for him the case of a friend.  This is where the subplot of a strange relationship came into the picture! Does Monalisa have more secrets in her closet?