Former Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia and City Assessor Atty. Maphilindo Polvora
City Hall and the rest of Bacolod is once again under the rule of the Evelio Leonardia-led Grupo Progreso, through its Congressional bet, Vice Mayor Greg Gasataya as Acting City Mayor who took oath on the same day Mayor Monico Puentevella peacefully received his 90-day preventive suspension last November 16.
And since a “new administration” is now taking control of the reins of the city, acting Mayor Gasataya, with due respected to the authority vested in him, opted to reinstate several employees and executives who were detailed with a different role prior to his takeover.
Among those was Atty. Maphilindo Polvora. The former City Assessor head was reassigned to the City Legal Office where he was to focus on the Real Property Tax Code after the Chamber of Real Estate Builders’ Association (CREBA) and Subdivision Housing Developers Association-Negros Occidental chapters (SHDA) filed a case against the city for nulling City Ordinance No 08-14-700, or the updating of the schedule of fair market value or real properties.
The issue with Polvora came after 3 Job Order employees filed a blotter against the City Assessor at Police Station 4 last November 18, Wednesday. According to Mary Jane Villanueva, Mary Ann Valenzuela and Mabelle Pineda, Polvora verbally harassed them after learning that they are appointees of Mayor-elect Puentevella. The respondents said during their interview with a local radio station that Polvora ordered them to “go with your suspended mayor and his lieutenants” and that they will not vote for Greg Gasataya and Congressman Leonardia because they are “Pro-Monico”.
To cut the confrontation, a “different” Polovora used this new found authority as City Assessor chief to abuse and belittle the employees. Is it justifiable for a department head, let alone a government official to treat those below him with such gall and antipathy? As Ben Parker once said on the big screen: “With great power comes great responsibility”. If so, Polvora clearly didn’t use his power for good but instead, turned himself into a self-centered, egocentric creature hell bent to take revenge on the people of Puentevella just because he now controls the office that they were assigned.
Click on the audio clip below to hear the full interview of the three employees. Be the judge, jury and executioner.
The name behind the controversial Ukay-Ukay issue is in the hot seat once again but this time, denying his previous claim that placed Mayor Monico Puentevella and Executive Assistant Rocky Puentevella in a precarious situation.
In his Affidavit of Recantation filed before the Office of the Ombudsman – Visayas in Cebu last November 12, 2015, Wilnor Jimenez Dela Torre declared that the contents of his previously filed affidavit dated October 29, 2015 was not his, but were “all fabricated and supplied by Mr. Marlo “Nonoy” Amago. He added that Amago intimidated and forced him to sign the paper that he prepared.
He then reluctantly bought the affidavit to Atty. Dennis S. Jarder of the City Prosecutor’s Office “for the verification of the affidavit” prepared by Amago. However, Atty. Jarder never asked Del Torre if he “voluntary made and fully understood the contents of the affidavit.” Rather, Atty. Jarder just asked him for his ID and signed the affidavit.
Congressman Evelio “Bing” Leonardia and former Casual Employees Coordinator Marlou “Nonoy” Amago
“The affidavit dated October 29, 2015 was not properly verified by competent authority,” he added. Dela Torre said that several months before October 29, 2015, Amago “consistently and persistently hounded” him and even threatened him and his family “with harm and imprisonment” if he did not sign the affidavit that he prepared that points to Rocky Puentevella and Mayor Monico Puentevella as masterminds of the Ukay-Ukay of Marife Fernandez.
“It was only because of the continuous threats from Mr. Amago that I was pushed against the wall and I had no choice but to do whatever he wanted,” he stated in his affidavit.
He likewise claimed that he doesn’t know Marife Fernandez and that he did not see her pay the amount of P100, 000.00 on December 16, 2013, P150, 000.00 on January 16, 2014 and another P150, 000.00 on April 3, 2014 to Rocky Puentevella.
“I do not believe that Rocky Puentevella and Mayor Monico Puentevella are the masterminds in the illegal operation of Ukay-Ukay in Bacolod City,” said Dela Torre.
Wilnor Dela Torre with Mayor Monico Puentevella
A former City Hall employee, Dela Torre was once the personal secretary of Rocky Puentevella. According to him, his work “was to entertain various people who came to his office who had transactions with the city government, especially in processing their needs like business permit, building permit, registration, etc.” He even accused the younger Puentevella of collecting fees “in order to help them in their processing or simply these persons may have a transaction or business deal with the city.”
The main point of Dela Torre’s previous affidavit revolves around Fernandez paying Rocky Puentevella a total of P400, 000.00 for her Ukay-Ukay business. He said that he personally issued her with three checks used by the Kasadya Bacolod Development Foundation, Incorporated: OR # 0156 on December 16, 2013; OR # 0159 on January 16, 2014 and OR # 0161 on April 3, 2014. The first receipt (OR # 0156) was issued by Dela Torre with his initials, while the remaining receipts were issued by him with his full signature. These were made after “the personal delivery of the respective cash payment by Marife Fernandez to Rocky Puentevella in our office” for the ukay-ukay operation scheduled for the month of April 2014 and May 2014.
Dela Torre and Fernandez met again after the media reported that the said business was illegal. He said that Fernandez complained to Rocky Puentevella and KBDFI President Rhoderick Samonte about the stoppage of her ukay-ukay, which was situated along Gatuslao Street sometime in April 3 to 28, 2014.
She was referred to the office of City Administrator Atty. Rolando Villamor “so that she can continue her ukay-ukay operation especially during the MassKara Festival 2014”. He later learned that the Fernandez’s ukay-ukay business during last year’s MassKara Festival “was in exchange” for her returning the Kasadya OR # 0161dated April 3, 2014 in the amount of P150, 000.00. The official receipt was then forwarded to Dela Torre from the Office of the City Administrator “with the instruction to attach the said original receipt back to its stub”.
Eventually, Dela Torre claimed that he resigned from his duties with Rocky Puentevella because according to affidavit, he “can no longer stand the many transactions that are not any more related to public service”.
For her part, Marife Fernandez also filed an Affidavit of Desistance on July 3, 2014. The complainant of the issued ukay-ukay stated that she accepts the decision of Mayor Monico Puentevella to prohibit any business or commercial transactions in the Public Plaza “because it is beyond the commerce of man” and that the Mayor personally mandated the provision after a series of consultation with Bishop Vicente Navarra.
Although she’s had various reactions on the order, Fernandez finally executed her affidavit “to attest to the truth of the foregoing facts and to declare” that she has no complaint, action and/or causes of action against the Mayor or any of his staff or personnel in the operation of her business, and to formally declare her desistance to file any action against any City or Barangay officials, private organization and/or association whom she may had wrongly implicated.
RUNNING OUT OF TIME?
Desperate times call for desperate measures, as they say. But to harass and intimidate an individual to point a dirty finger and put the blame on somebody else for something that didn’t even happen is way beyond the normal circumstance of a rational human being.
What Amago did to Dela Torre is, bar none, unethical and stained with all the malice in the world. Somehow, there’s a real story behind why Dela Torre resigned from his position, but it certainly doesn’t involve him witnessing illegal transactions that he can no longer stand.
We can’t deny the fact that political vendetta is behind this, but to drag the family of Mayor Puentevella to the feud is a tactic only made by the lowest of the low. The people of Bacolod are intelligent enough to judge each leader and they know how to distinguish right from wrong.
Election time is just around the corner. With his suspension, Mayor Puentevella now has all the time in the world to get in touch with the residents of Bacolod and to make his presence felt that he is still the elected Chief Executive of the City of Smiles. Leonardia’s camp on the other hand is running out of time, which is why they are resulting to below the belt tactics, immoral choices and unfair play.
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