Guilt is the cause of fear

Hole of Justice

by Peter G. Jimenea

Guilt causes fear!

In 2001, the Iloilo City Government acquired a P120M PNB loan through bond floatation for the construction of 413 units of low-cost houses for the poor City Hall employees. The project is under the newly elected Mayor Jerry Trenas.

It is awarded to Ace Builders Construction owned by Alex Trinidad, a close friend of the mayor. There is no cash flow from the city coffers to the contractor in payment of his services as collection is direct to the bank.

But if there is a will there is a way. The PNB loan was transferred to the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB). On why, only God knows. But it incurs a travel cost of - P12M. For documentation (kuno). Thus, our new loan obligation becomes P132M.

On what misfortune, the substandard materials used in the project construction were discovered by city council members who immediately passed a unanimous resolution urging the mayor to rescind the contract and sue the contractor.

But the mayor did not. Instead he continued paying the bill of the contractor.  Due to the deliberate neglect of the mayor, the city was obliged to pay a P17,000 daily interest of the loan to PVB for over a year including holidays!

Only the Ombudsman intervention has stopped him from paying the contractor who had pocketed P62.5M from the abandoned project. That’s it, despite the residual imperfection in the billing, their will was done!

Even for that suspicious bank interest alone, the city government has paid P24.7M. This injustice to the taxpayers is a crime that cries to God for vengeance. And it is written, that he who offends when drunk shall be punished when sober!

Under Article 1338 of the Civil Code, there is fraud when, through insidious words or machinations of one of the contracting parties, the other is induced to enter into a contract which, without them, he would not have agreed to.

But this fraud may be serious as the mayor seems a willing partner. As easily gleaned, he religiously paid the contractor’s billing when not even a unit of the 413 houses was built.  It is widely believed that Mayor Trenas is an accomplice to the crime.

Why did he not rescind the contract knowing a violation has been committed by the contractor? Article 1191 says the power to rescind obligations is implied in reciprocal ones, in case one of the obligors should not comply with what is incumbent upon him.

This is what got us so angry about. Being a lawyer and the most studios at that, he should have sued the contractor for breach of contract to the court of law. This could surely obviate public suspicion of his involvement to the crime.

Besides, as the injured party, he may choose between the fulfillment and the rescission, even after he has chosen fulfillment if the latter should become impossible. Yet, he preferred to ignore official accountability and responsibility attendant thereto. 

ART. 1385. Rescission creates the obligation to return the things which were the object of the contract, together with their fruits, and the price with its interest; consequently, it can be carried out only when he who demands rescission can return whatever he may be obliged to restore.

But if one noticed, Mayor Trenas had been religiously paying the contractor for the project that never was. As city mayor, he is a little president who personifies the law that holds his community together either bearable or miserable. But he chose the latter for us in exchange for… you know what!

Thus, the project that started in 2001 during his first term as mayor has ended a white elephant in 2009. In street-smart parlance, the project is a "hao shiao." True, exitus acta probat – the outcome justifies the deed. And what more absurd legacy can we ask?

Should one still wonder why Cong. Trenas is afraid to guest at my program KAPE kag ISYU aired live over Sky cable TV every Saturday morning? Guilt is the cause of fear, that’s it. Jurisprudence borne from experience tells us that perfect testimonies cannot be expected from imperfect senses (274 SCRA 208).