A Few Good Men Talking

[Ten Inosanto]

MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE CORE GROUP CREATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF STUDY, REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED LOCAL AND BARANGAY ELECTIONS OF 2007 HELD AT THE RESIDENCE OF THE FORMER BARANGAY CAPTAIN OF PANINGAYAN, A STAUNCH PARTY ELDER AND ADVISER, THE HONORABLE NACIANCENO N. NEMIS IN PANINGAYAN, MADALAG, AKLAN ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008 AT 12:30 P.M.


In Attendance were:

• Mr. Juan Extyn I. Inosanto, Presiding
• Atty. Dangal Z. Nadua, Appointed Secretary
• Hon. Mauricio N. Navarrete
• Mr. Luis Archimedes F. Orbista, Jr.
• Mr. Elvi I. Tamayo
• Mrs. Mildred N. Sioco
• Hon. Hannibal N. Cometa
• Hon. Nacianceno N. Nemis

• Also Present: Mr. Albert C. Nacasabug, Supply Officer
Mr. Alfeo Trinidad, Guest

1. The meeting was called to order by Extyn and requested Hannibal to lead a prayer.
Note: For simplicity and easy name recall, given names are used in these minutes instead.

2. The Presiding Officer or hereinafter referred to as Extyn welcomed everyone and told them that the meeting was called in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of the just concluded local and barangay elections of 2007. He reiterated further that unless we thoroughly study the past we won’t be able to appreciate the realities of the present and may just commit the same mistakes again in the future;

3. All the core group members were earlier supplied with the copy of the confidential post-election 2007 analysis report prepared by Extyn himself being submitted for approval by the core group subject to the concurrence and adoption of the party as a whole in a plenary vote at a later date to be called for the purpose;

4. Much time was devoted to the complaint made by the former barangay captain of Paningayan, Nasing with the Commission on Audit Regional Office VI and of the other nineteen (19) barangays concerned in an official Report of Disbursement Potable Water System (In 20 Barangays) both signed by the Mayor and Municipal Treasurer, respectively;

5. It appears that for the period December 2006-October 2007 the amount of FIVE MILLION THREE HUNDRED NINETY SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED NINETY PESOS & 08/100 PESOS (PHP 5,397,990.08) were appropriated and likewise disbursed by the local government of Madalag, Aklan out of the allocated (PHP5,757,099.30) or a reported completion rate of 93.76%. Note: Please see attached copy of report;

6. To expedite the transmission of said complaint, Extyn asked for the copy of the said complaint and asked the group that if be allowed, he will instead submit and personally hand-carries the same to COA Regional Office VI, Iloilo City. Note: On September 4, 2008 Mr. Joe Cabarles received the letter-complaint and he promised to Extyn that he will personally attend to this complaint and he referred it yet again to Mr. Jun Cabahug, unfortunately however we have yet to hear from them even after some three (3) months that has since passed;

7. Upon scrutiny however, we indeed found out that despite claims made by Hannibal that only 5 water systems out of the 20 barangays mentioned in the said report were not yet implemented at all, we are convinced of the fact that such funds were used to bankroll the candidacy of Rex and company in the local elections of 2007 and;

8. That, we are of the belief that a thorough audit and inventory by the COA is just and necessary to determine the veracity and truthfulness of these claims;

9. Extyn reported that said copy of the report of disbursement signed by the mayor and the municipal treasurer came from the party chairman himself, the former mayor Archimedes N. Orbista, Sr. or Rk as hereinafter referred to in the succeeding paragraphs, and he wants Extyn to do what is necessary to ferret out the truth and make sure justice is served; (Note: To ensure that the order of the chairman is fulfilled Extyn took to task to do the following):

• Upon receipt of the report, Extyn went straight to Atty. Florencio D. Gonzales or hereinafter referred to as Olen to file the necessary graft cases in court against Rex but Olen cautioned Extyn not to bring this matter out to the attention of the media just yet and warned of the possibility that all the signatories in the disbursement vouchers may just be found as guilty as Rex himself and he asked Extyn if he can call the personnel concerned to come to his office the following day;

• On Saturday, August 23, 2008 Olen summoned both Albert and Amy to his law office to shed light on the matter and Olen was dismayed finding out that the labour contractor mentioned in the report who is Rosalina I. Flogen or popularly known in the town as Rose, the wife of Taba Flogen who by public knowledge is not a duly licensed entrepreneur to do business with government and was only used by Rex supposedly to act for and in behalf of an NGO, that is NGOKNGOK which bagged the labour contract cost of PHP1,200,000.00 more or less. We find this “kalo-kalo bihon” utterly repugnant, revolting, nauseating, and strongly condemns this abhorrent criminal act in the truest sense of the word;

(Note: This is another violation of the provisions contained in Article 4.4.8. of COA Circular No. 2007-001 dated 10-25-07 that explicitly prohibits and automatically disqualifies any NGO to do business with the GO whose incorporators, organizers, directors or officials is an agent of or related by consanguinity or affinity up to the fourth civil degree to the officials of the GO) for as we all know NGOKNGOK regularly joins the annual Kalibo Ati-atihan as a participating Ati tribe since the 90’s and the only Atis in the cultural minority groups doing multi-million pesos contracts in Madalag. Its organizer Pusoy Gubatina and the whole Gubatina clan in the mainland U.S. foots the bill every time they join the Kalibo Ati-Atihan; We are not privy however, if it’s a profit or non-profit organization but said NGOKNGOK vanishes as a group after conclusion of any Ati-atihan festival and resurrects the next time. No other noteworthy projects or activity was ever noted of this group that they have so far implemented or caused to do for the improvement of Madalag and its infrastructures, but is infinitely the only one and single most favoured contractor of Rex that is involved in a series of onerous, lopsided and questionable mind-boggling multi-million local government contracts that we believe; the extent and magnitude of its involvement to defraud Madalag and of all its unsuspecting people has yet to be uncovered;

• Albert insisted to Olen and Extyn that the supplier in this case, the Pastrana Construction and Supply is also a bogus company. He further states that Rex was fuming mad at him every time he won’t sign the delivery receipts for ghost deliveries and he was being coerced and harassed into signing false claims for so long now;

• Amy for her part told Olen that whenever a voucher is presented to her and that the same satisfies all the requirements for payment, all she’s got to do was to issue the corresponding checks. She further re-iterated that supply of materials is deemed consummated and delivered only if and when Albert affixes his signature to the receipt voucher and that it is no longer in her province to check the authenticity of said claims nor is she constrained by law to render judgment whether or not such a conspiracy to defraud government is in place;

• Amy and Albert said on the question being propounded upon them that both denied to having been offered nor given (even) a single centavo or of any gift whatsoever in exchange for their signatures on these questionable transactions;

10. Dongdong, whose wife Edna is the municipal planning and development officer also told all those present that Rex requested that funds for the Dit-ana Water System project, a known opposition bailiwick should be re-aligned alleging that a Deed of Donation is still wanting and that it should be used for other purposes instead; (Note: Said donation papers was already submitted to and likewise received by Ramil as early as April of 2007 when he asked Boloy to have it signed by Rk, Rex’s erstwhile opponent in last elections, so it will be implemented immediately.)

11. The proceeds however were believed to have been used later during the campaign period to buy votes for himself and against the donor/candidate and re-aligning it at this time is only to try to justify the reasons behind its non-implementation and as a desperate move by him to cover up and hide the truth;

12. Diligent efforts made by the group to review the schedule of releases of funds contained in the Report of Disbursement revealed and confirmed our suspicion that indeed these funds were released immediately preceding the two elections of 2007 that even on a Sunday or on May 10th, 2007 on the very eve of the local elections, millions in government funds were being released in form of cash advances or VALE to Rex and his cohorts in cahoots with the supposedly bogus contractors; (Note: this is yet again another gross violation of the Omnibus Election Code prohibiting the hiring, contracting and/or implementing government projects.)

13. On the matter regarding the pronouncements made by Rex himself earlier that whoever becomes his opponent in 2010 as he was quoted to have been heard as saying “bisan times ten pa!” unquote, Dongdong supplied the answer by telling us that a project study is underway for the implementation of the Two Hundred Forty Million Pesos (PHP240, 000,000.00) Aklan River Project. We believe that he is setting his sights on this grandmother-of-all-scams project to again make money by recommending all his dummy underlings and tried to make representations with the governor and all other regulatory bodies to avail for themselves immensely huge areas for a quarry permit(s) so they can sell it for a fee to any contractor every grain of sand and gravel that may be needed - like they were the only chosen ones by the Almighty to reap the riches of the earth;

14. Extyn then asked of any errors they found in his own report and the following were found to be erroneous and said articles have to be corrected;

• Green pick up was bought by Grace and consequently sold to Bubol for PHP70,000.00;
• Black pick up was bought allegedly by Cyd and is now being used by Grace and family;
Note: Proof of purchase must be examined and source(s) of funds must be established whether or not they have indeed the means to acquire the same at the time of purchase;
• Nissan NAVARA bought by the municipality for use by the office of the mayor.
• On Dongdong: that he was invited by Bogot to attend the opposition convention and never presented himself out of his own volition and of delicadeza. He was offered a slot but only as a SAGIBIN candidate. He reiterated the fact that he requested Eunice to give up as vice-mayoral candidate but failed;

15. When confronted by their seeming conciliatory attitude and indulgence towards the majority of the members of the SB on certain critical issues, Dongdong and Boknoy claimed and considering the fact that they are the only ones comprising the minority bloc, there is nothing much that they can do to thwart or foil any attempt by the majority to get all issues and concerns done their own way, in whatever way; as long as it is their way. Intelligent discussions and verbal tussles or exchanges on any issue that is being brought upon them for deliberation, consideration and resolution are immediately discouraged and/or stymied by Lando, the Vice-Mayor and Presiding Officer of the Sangguniang Bayan of Madalag, Aklan as it is customary of him to immediately call to divide the house whenever an objection is about to be raised. (Note: Sounds familiar! We may have the wisdom but they got the numbers.)

16. There being no other issues raised in the report that were challenged, the same was deemed APPROVED in principle, and “in toto”.

17. On the matter of public/party interest, we came to know about that the engineer, mpdc, treasurer, accountant, budget officer, bookkeeper and the supply officer were ALL appointed to their respective offices by Rk himself and most if not all of which were signatories to the vouchers in question.

Note: Why Rex was able to fool around all these opposition appointed ladies and gentlemen is one of his extraordinary attributes, setting a record to break in the future - that in his utter desperation to perpetuate himself in the reins of power and governance became too bold and audacious enough by resorting to commit a series of violations of the Anti-Graft And Corrupt Practices Act amassing millions and millions of pesos in kickbacks and commissions and ghost deliveries. I believe that Rex, reputed to be the most corrupt mayor of Madalag will forever linger in the annals of our town’s political history.

18. It was resolved that all party members who are related to these poor employees being subjected to and themselves becoming reluctant and unwilling victims of coercion, intimidation and harassment by the incumbent Mayor;
• That they will all be asked to repudiate any requests for payments or to ask them to refrain from signing any document that they presume to be questionable in nature; and
• To require them to strictly observe, follow and conscientiously adhere to all laws and/or related but specific instructions specifically those guidelines set forth for the purpose as contained in the New Government Accounting System (NGAS) manual of 2002.
• Further, we will provide them with a lawyer whom they can turn to anytime they need legal advise;

19. That the party uses its influence over these employees to implore them to refuse, frustrate and/or otherwise negate every effort or opportunity by the incumbent to continue to defraud government;

20. Extyn announced that some fifteen (15) individuals already signified their interest to run for the 8-councilor elective seats at the SB. It has been suggested that for purposes of getting the best men/women in the line-up, a party convention/election is necessary to elect the official line up comprising the candidates for councillors;

21. Extyn proposed a 4-2-2 equation for him, Rk and Felix to fill up, by sponsorship. It was resolved however to bring it up to the party plenary instead.

22. Extyn announced that one party member/donor wants to bankroll our efforts in 2010.

23. It was resolved further that individual candidates will be required to contribute to the party funds as a requisite for entry in the official line-up because the party believes that overwhelming logistical superiority in terms of both money and manpower is essential to attaining that elusive opposition party’s success in 2010.

24. Extyn reported to have met with Wene Naplaza and Roger Zaradulla, respectively earlier that day but did not disclose with the group the gist, substance or masculin essentiel of those two separate meetings he had with the two gentlemen earlier mentioned claiming that it was still premature to say or speculate any probability of their joining up at this time;

25. End of meeting at 2:30p.m