Vice Mayor Glenn Bercede | CDN File Photo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – A Mandaue City resident has asked City Council members to look into the legality of the 2015 sale of 35, 821 square meters of foreshore land in Barangay Looc to the E.C. Ouano Development and Management Corp. (Ecodemcor).
Abner Quiño, a resident of Barangay Banilad, said that there was a need to determine if the re-acquisition of said lot was possible.
“This is important because Mandaue deserves to know whether or not the possibility of lot reacquisition is among the agenda of this council. Not only do you hold the city’s purse and property as steward, but upon your shoulder what you carry is the most burdensome of them all: the people and their trust,” Quiño said in a September 16 letter which he sent to council members through Vice Mayor Glenn Bercede.
Quiño was one of the two individuals who earlier filed complaints for the violation of Section 3(e) and 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Republic Act 7080 that penalizes the crime of plunder against Mayor Jonas Cortes, Bercede, former councilors Nenita Layese and Diosdado Suico and former legal officer Giovani Tianero to question the sale of the foreshore land to Ecodemcor at P50 per square meter or a total of P1.7 million.
He sent his letter to Bercede five months since he and Emmanuel Espiritu II filed the Ombudsman case in April.
But it remains uncertain if Bercede was willing to call an investigation on the transaction that involved him and mayor Cortes.
CDN Digital tried to reach the vice mayor but calls and text messages sent to his number were unanswered.
Mayor Cortes could not also be reached for comment.
City Administrator Jamal James Calipayan also begged off from issuing any statement. He told CDN Digital that Cortes already sent his reply to the Ombudsman case. | dcb