Author Topic: Salcon Issue in Bohol  (Read 1119 times)

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Salcon Issue in Bohol
« on: March 28, 2015, 01:47:13 PM »
Like a blast from the past, members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, who approved the controversial sale of the twin provincial public utilities (light and water) to the Salcon Group of Companies in year 2000, were confronted anew with the allegation of “having received money from the deal.”

Tossed into the limelight is former board member and now provincial administrator Atty. Tomas Abapo, Jr. who was then the defense counsel of the provincial government when it faced a suit in the regional trial court questioning propriety of the sale of the twin facilities (formerly under the Provincial Public Utilities Department -PPUD).

He was emphatic in saying “he did not received a single centavo from that joint-venture-agreement” entered into by the provincial government under former governor Rene Relampagos.

“Kinsa tong, mo-ingon nga usa ko’s nakasapi, I will look at him straight in the eye and say I received not a single centavo,” Abapo said when confronted on the issue during the regular Friday radio program Governor’s Report.

“Gani kon buot hunahunaon, alkansi pa ko,” he added.

He said he was not paid by the provincial government when he acted as lawyer in defending the propriety of the deal in the lower court and up to the Court of Appeals.

Abapo had to explain further, answering the question posed by Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Bohol Chapter president Atty. Salvador Diputado who recalled that the previous public consensus was that the PPUD was not well managed by the government and that private operators can do it better.

“If the propriety of the sale to Salcon was right, then why tinker with the idea of buying it again?” Diputado threw the question to the former Relampagos lawyer.

“There was a meeting held last week at the Bohol Beach Club with the Governor, Vice Governor and members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. Those board members who previously supported the Salcon deal are now backing the buy-back plan because they are disappointed too”, Abapo revealed.

JVA violations
The lawyer-provincial administrator revealed that there are violations that discouraged the provincial government in continuing with the joint-venture-agreement.

First, there is no accounting report submitted to the provincial government in the last five years of operation; second, the government is not receiving any share of the profits of the operation despite being the second majority stockholder (with 30% share) in the twin utilities.

The final point that triggered the plan to end the joint-venture-agreement is in the decision-making which was supposed to be made unanimous among board of directors as stipulated in the JVA.

Abapo cited the water rate increase petition of 40.79% submitted by the Bohol Water Utilities Inc. which was subsequently approved by the National Water Resources Board in Manila on September 20, 2006.

The BWUI board resolution submitted to NWRB was approved without consultation and the signature of the provincial government representative Engr. Francisco Ceniza.

“The resolution therefore was null and void from the beginning since it has no approval of the whole members of the board which include two representatives from the provincial government,” Abapo said.

Last week, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan has authorized the governor and the two water board representatives to initiate appropriate legal steps to nullify the resolution and prevent the implementation and collection of the increased water rates.

Abapo said the Office of the Provincial Legal Office is now finalizing an intra- corporate complaint that will be filed in a regional trial court this week.

Political issue
The Salcon issue has been publicly acknowledge as the Waterloo of the then governor Relampagos.

Touted as the youngest ever-elected governor of the province, he spearheaded the idea of selling the twin public utilities to the Salcon Group of Companies in the year 2000; declaring that he is “putting at stake his political career” for such decision; eyeing a better water and light services under private hands.

Curiously, after a series of public hearings, members of the provincial board, including Abapo, were treated to a leisure trip to Malaysia where they allegedly received the fat pay-off from the multi-national Salcon firm.

And amid separate appraisals that the twin facilities were worth over P500-million, the Salcon deal was consummated in December 2000 for the amount of only P150-million.

It was a year before Relampagos’ re-election bid for his third and final term.

In the May 2001 elections, his contender, then second district congressman Erico Aumentado trounced him badly with a record-high total margin of 49,000 + votes in the final counting.

Light and water consumers in Tagbilaran City also delivered close to10,000 votes for Aumentado in expressing their disagreement in the controversial Salcon deal.

The same issue dealt another defeat for Relampagos in his second attempt in May 2004 to regain his former Capitol seat. - January 7, 2007, The Bohol Standard

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