CORRUPTION AT DAVAO CITY COUNCIL – Update No. 1

City councilor ready to back graft charge

Resigned Davao City Council Floor Leader Bonifacio Militar is not backing out from his charge some councilors shook down applicants to cough up bribe money for approval of locational clearance for housing or business projects.

Militar said on local radio yesterday he would attend next week’s regular session to clarify an allegation in his resignation letter about attempts by some councilors to force him to violate council rules in favor of questionable legislation.

The accusation of Militar, replaced on Tuesday by councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, left a storm sparked by his resignation letter that could place anew the image of the city council on the chopping block.

In 1992, the beer giant San Miguel Brewery relocated a beer plant to Darong, Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur reportedly after Davao City councilors demanded a large sum for locational permit for a proposed site in Daliao, Toril.

In 2006, an association of housing developers accused city councilors of setting on applications for housing projects for their failure to pay sums to facilitate approval.

Militar made the promise to appear at the city council session, even as the council committee on ethics has yet to schedule an investigation.

Councilor Victorio Advincula in the Tuesday session where Militar’s resignation letter was read called for an investigation by the blue ribbon committee chaired by councilor Diosdado Mahipus.

Advincula said he wanted to clear his name as in an earlier interview over the week-end he heard Militar saying that a councilor from the Third District was brokering the corrupt deals with applicants. Advincula is also from the district.

The Mahipus committee was also expected to invite councilor Nilo Abellera who in the Tuesday session also dished out his own expose on a councilor who reportedly demanded P1.5 million from a housing project applicant.

Abellera said that while on his way to the council session, a housing developer he did not identify called him by phone to volunteer the information that he gave the amount to a city councilor to be distributed to members of the city council.

Applications for housing or business projects needs approval by the council and are handled by the committee on housing, rural and urban development chaired by councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling.

The Cabling committee had labored last year for months to steer approval of several housing applications that were always deferred for lack of quorum or shot down and disapproved for failing to get the 3/4^th votes or 21 members of the 26-member city council as mandated by the Amended Zoning Code of 1996.

With the “majority bloc” of the council led by Militar only numbering 20, the needed 3/4^th vote is said to be the critical factor used as a leverage by some councilors to assure applications would get approved if they cough up bribe money.