Tom: Balili case involves fraud;

petition up for coal plant freeze

Cebu Daily News
First Posted 07:11:00 11/22/2010

The Ombudsman's order to investigate Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, several Capitol officials and two Balili family
members for the ?disadvantageous? purchase of 11 lots in Naga that turned out to be mostly mostly underwater
reopened questions about the 2008 transaction and coal ash waste.

?It's not gross negligence. It's worse than criminal negligence,? said Tomas Osmea, Cebu city south district
representative and Garcia's long-time critic.

?The purchase is outright fraudulent.?

Osmea said while he was happy the probe will take place, he said the Ombudsman should not buy the ?feeble
reason? of Garcia that part of the land would be used by the Province of Cebu for a coal ash storage facility.

?Who is she trying to fool? For me she's guilty of plunder beyond a reasonable doubt,? said Osmea.

The land purchase was fully paid for at P98.9 million.

Other critics want to see heads roll.

Businessman Crisologo Saavedra, whose role as ?whistleblower? led to investigations of other provincial projects,
said he believes Governor Garcia should be placed on preventive suspension.

?She should be suspended to protect the integrity of the evidence and to protect witnesses from harassment. She's
the mastermind of this illegal transaction,? he said.

Saavedra said he was ?very satisfied? with the fact-finding of the Visayas Ombudsman in the Balili case and said it
has restored the credibility of the office, after months of waiting for results.

But he said he wanted to exclude Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr., his ally, from liability since the governor calls the
shots in the Capitol.

Meanwhile, Sanchez said he would ask the anti-graft office to dismiss the case against him.

?I only presided over the provincial board session. I did not vote for the resolution (authorizing the governor in
the land purchase in 2008),? he said.

The coming investigation will not be handled by the Ombudsman in the Visayas, which prepared the final
evaluation report on the Balili case pinning liability on Governor Garcia and others.

The probe will be handled by the Prelimnary Investigation and Administrative Adjudication Burearu (PARB) in
Manila, said Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Palanca Santiago.

She said respondents would be given a chance to answer the allegations.

Asked how long this would take, Santiago said ?it all depends on how quick the notices will be sent?.

Capitol spokesman Rory Jon Sepulveda said the findings of the graft investigator against the governor were ?
premature? because she wasn't asked to answer them.

Sepulveda said he was confident the governor would be able to answer allegations against her in the next stage of
the preliminary investigation.

Cebu environmentalists, who were the first to question the classification of the Balili lots last year, said they would
launch a nationwide signature campaign against coal ash.

Lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos of the Philippine Earth Justice System said that they will petition Congress to
declare a moratorium on the operation of coal-fired power plants all over the country.

?We will gather one million signatures nationwide to stop it. We don?t deserve dirty greenhouse gas,? Ramos told
Cebu Daily News.

?We will conduct a more vigorous campaign against coal power plants and we will move as fast as we can,? she
said.

On the other hand, lawyer Joselito Ramon Castillano of the Toledo Power Corporation and Cebu Energy
Development Corporation (TPC-CEDC), which operates a coal-fired plant said there is no clear proof that coal ash
waste is hazardous to people's health.

?There are no reports on health issues which can be linked to coal ash toxicity,? Castillano told Cebu Daily News.

He said coal ash waste is not defined as a toxic material by Republic Act 6969 or the Toxic Substances and
Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990.

Fly ash, a type of coal ash waste, however, is listed as a pollutant in the Clean Air Act.

The petition will gather signatures from different universities and community in Cebu and sent to Congress on
Nov. 24. Forums on the danger of coal ash waste will also be mounted.

Ramos said she was pleased the issue of health hazards of coal ash will generate public opinion.

?We want this to be taken to a higher level and not just an issue of politics,? Ramos said. /report from Ador
Vincent Mayol, Candeze Mongaya, Fatrick Tabada and Jhunnex Napallacan