Silay execs, telco giant cleared on lease deal

BACOLOD CITY—The Ombudsman has dismissed for lack of substantial evidence an administrative complaint filed two years ago against Mayor Jose Montelibano and 12 other officials of Silay City in connection with their lease of city properties to a telecommunications giant.

In a complaint filed on May 5, 2011, Jose Lindy Chan Jr. questioned a Silay council resolution authorizing Montelibano to sign a contract with Smart Communications for the lease of government land at the Silay Engineering Compound, Guimbalaon public cemetery and Patag Hospital to be used as sites for the company’s cell site towers.

Chan described the resolution as illegal and anomalous, saying there was no proof of social acceptability submitted by the villages.

Moreover, he said the Patag property had been declared a forest reserve by the national government and thus not owned by the city government.

Chan said the lease contract, dated April 9, 2008, stating that Smart would provide Internet wireless access worth P80,000 instead of monthly cash rentals, was disadvantageous to the city.

Evidence not substantial

The Ombudsman said that after a thorough evaluation, the evidence was not substantial to hold the respondents administratively liable.

A May 27 decision, signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, said proper steps were taken by the parties to ensure that the contract would be beneficial and advantageous to Silay. In fact, it noted that the value of Internet access, or an average monthly rental of P23,333 per cell site, was higher than the prevailing maximum rental rates offered by other providers.

It noted that the concerned barangay (village) councils had passed resolutions approving the presence of cell site towers. It ruled that the claim that the city is not the absolute owner of the properties in Patag and Guimbalaon had no merit.

Chan, who received a copy of the decision on Friday, questioned its validity.

He said previous rulings of the Ombudsman on cases involving Silay officials contained the recommendation and signature of Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol. But in the decision on the properties leased to Smart for cell site towers, his name was not in the decision, he said. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas