Muntinlupa sues ex-mayor for graft

The Muntinlupa government has filed a graft and corruption complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman against former City Mayor Aldrin San Pedro for what it described as an unauthorized, overpriced right of way road contract he signed in 2012 with the owner of a private lot in Barangay (village) Putatan.

The city government, through Genesi Santiago of the city legal office, filed on Feb. 27 the 11-page complaint that accused San Pedro of buying at a bloated price a 931-square-meter portion of the Marmeto Compound without the authorization of both the city council and City Assessor’s Office.

Court records showed that on Jan. 9, 2012, then Mayor San Pedro entered into a conditional sale of right of way contract with property owner Emiliano Marmeto, buying part of his land for P6.4 million so that it could build a road leading to an adjacent government-owned medium-rise housing project.

Incumbent Mayor Jaime Fresnedi, however, said that his predecessor did not secure the required resolution or ordinance from the city council to enter into such an agreement. He also claimed that the purchased property’s fair market value was P1.1 million and the P6.4 million valuation was not backed up by any appraisal report from the assessor’s office.

Moreover, San Pedro’s move overrode a previous contract involving the same property which Fresnedi himself signed during his term 14 years ago.

In a statement issued Monday, Fresnedi said that on March 20, 2000, he was authorized by the city council to enter into a conditional deed of exchange with the Marmetos. Under the agreement, both parties would simply “swap” ownership of portions of their adjoining properties for the road right of way project. San Pedro, then a councilor, was a signatory of the contract, the mayor pointed out.

Fresnedi described San Pedro’s action as “grossly disadvantageous” to the city government.

“We cannot let this go unpunished because such abuse of power only shows a lack of accountability to the people of Muntinlupa,” he said. “The people of Muntinlupa deserve justice and it is only right that the city government be compensated rightfully in order to return to the people what is rightfully theirs,” he said.

But in a phone interview, San Pedro told the Inquirer a different version of the events. He said that the city government, during Fresnedi’s previous terms, incurred “around P5 million to P6 million in penalties” because it pushed through with the road project but ignored for years certain conditions set in its contract with the Marmetos. These, he said, included the construction of a drainage system and property division. He said the delays had a daily penalty of P1,500.

He added that during his second term, the Marmetos complained about the matter and demanded that the penalties be settled. There was also a threat to sue the city government and shut down the road until its obligations to the property owner were settled.

San Pedro said that to solve the matter, he convinced the Marmetos to simply sell a portion of their lot to the city government. In addition, they agreed that he would pay only the penalties incurred during his first term as mayor. The payment would be done in installment over the course of around 10 months.

“It was cheaper to buy it than settle the penalties,” San Pedro explained. The former mayor recalled that the Marmetos priced the parcel of land at around P3.5 million and the penalties he was asked to pay totaled around P1.5 million.

In its complaint, the city government said San Pedro paid over P3.8 million for the property value, and P2.5 million for the penalties.

“So where’s the graft there?” San Pedro asked. “In the first place, who caused the problem? Wasn’t it them (Fresnedi’s administration) because they incurred penalties? I actually solved the problem,” he said.

While he did not deny that he made the move without the approval of the city council, he said the local lawmakers could have simply ratified the original contract. “But they chose instead to file a case against me to make it look like I did something wrong,” he added.

San Pedro also denied Fresnedi’s claim that the market value of the purchased property was just P1.1 million. “That can’t be true. The property is near Soldier’s Hills which is a subdivision,” he said.

He claimed that he was simply being “demonized” by the current administration for political reasons. “The only reason I see is because they see me as a threat in [the] 2016 [elections],” he told the Inquirer.