‘Consultation with tax payers not enough’: Multi-million peso La Trinidad mall deal hit

By March Fianza

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- After neighboring Baguio’s contentious deal with a Korean entity over the development of the athletic bowl, comes a questionable piece of agreement entered into by the municipal government of La Trinidad and Luciano Tan of JARCO Realty and Development Corporation.

The two parties signed a contract on Dec. 21, 2009 which signaled the first phase of construction of a mall on a 3,910 square-meter area presently occupied as a parking area by the municipal government, private and public utility motor vehicles.

One day later on Dec. 22, 2009, the contract was unanimously ratified by the municipal council under Resolution No. 246-2009.

Lawyer Greg Abalos Jr. who claimed he was approached by concerned residents of La Trinidad said in a media conference last week, “whether the issue came earlier before this political season, I would have come out with the same fire as I had done today.”

“It is not politics. But it so happened that the problem came within the political season. And I can not just turn blind to the questions of concerned La Trinidad citizens who came to the office so I decided to research on it,” Abalos said.

With an LCD power point, Abalos showed certain features of the project which would be implemented under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme.

Among those presented were – from Dec. 22 to Feb. 19, 2010, La Trinidad would have to start to “deliver” the property to JARCO, with at least eight holes to be dug for soil-bearing capacity tests.

“Within 60 days from the signing of the contract, the area will be fenced in to give way to the construction of the mall,” Abalos quoted a part of the contract.

Aurelio Placido, a member of a transport association in La Trinidad confirmed that majority of the other members only became aware of the proposed project last December after the signing of the contract.

He added that they were not informed about any parking relocation which made many of them conclude that they will now have to look for other parking areas.

Placido also found out that the parking agreement their association signed with the municipal government will no longer be renewed because of the JARCO project.

“Marigatan ti riding public nu papanawen dakami ijay paradaan mi” (the riding public will be hard up once we will be driven out from our parking sites), Placido said.

But La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan was quick to reply to allegations that there was no consultation held prior to the contract.

He said market occupants were informed of the plan to build a mall in the parking area, and that legal procedures were followed.

In a news report Galwan defended the proposed BOT mall project which he said will be owned by the municipality after 30 years.

It is the “best option” for the municipality as there will be “no cash-out” from the government, he said in the same report.

Abalos also presented in the LCD comments he gathered from news sources. In one of the quotes, Vice Mayor Samuel Esguerra said, “We see it as part of development in face-lifting the municipality. It will be a tourist-oriented establishment where townspeople will go instead of having to go to Baguio City. Besides, we had the contract published in the papers, following procedures.”

For his part Councilor Thomas Chamos was quoted saying “There is nothing irregular about it, the bottomline is that it will be a business center where the municipal government will not be spending a single centavo. It is a legacy for the future generations”

Councilor Jim Botiwey was quoted saying “There is no need for public consultation because there are no stakeholders involved except for the municipal government that owns the place.”

Aside from saying that there was deliberate intention to hide the project from the people of La Trinidad since for “more than two years in the making, the people are still in the dark about it,” Abalos said the mall will “affect small businessmen who are the primary contributors to the municipality’s economy.”

“And there is no provision in the contract that would regulate the amount of rentals to be collected by the mall,” he added.

The panel stressed that they are not anti-development but were one in saying that the center area must instead be decongested because the parking lot within the public market is the “symbolic heart and soul of the municipality and traditional plaza” of La Trinidad.

“The parking lot is owned by all La Trinidad tax payers and so they should be the ones to decide on whether to allow the construction of a mall in the area,” Abalos said.

He said a temporary restraining order must be obtained from the court in order that La Trinidad residents and tax payers will be given the option to decide on whether to allow a big mall in the “heart and soul” of the municipality.

The JARCO mall will be worth more than P200 million which is why the project has to be submitted to the Investment Coordination Committee for recommendation and confirmation by the NEDA board in accordance with Sec. 04 of RA7718.

Under the same law, the Municipal Development Council (MDC) can confirm projects worth P20 million only.