by Ram A. Maxey
THE Davao City Council is again being rocked by a scandal of tsunami proportions. Nothing new, of course. It’s all about certain members having allegedly mulcted an investor for grease money to the tune of P1.5 million in exchange for approval by the Council of his application for reclassification of a piece of property whereon to locate his business. So, what else is new? It’s the same old story.
You have heard about similar shenanigans before. Remember the notorious four musketeers a.k.a. LBDM of the 15th City Council who facilitated approval of applications for business operations in the city—for a price? And long before that, the reason why the San Miguel Brewery management decided to locate operations elsewhere (Davao del Sur) was because they wouldn’t bow to extorters of a previous City Council, resulting to incalculable loss of income for Davao City in the form of taxes, to the everlasting delight of Davao del Sur.
This time around, the unlamented LBDM consortium is gone, but in its stead is a new acronym, the so-called “Triple A”. It has nothing to do with a type of battery, though, but refers to certain members of the Council, the first letter of whose surnames is “A”. A couple of those surnames even sound familiar from way back when, remember? They ring a bell in our memory…tingaling-aling! Which is neither here nor there, of course. Just surmising, hehehe.
Now, there are six surnames in this Council that begin with the letter “A”, only three of whom reportedly compose the triple-threat Triple A group, the broker, which rumor says remains a rumor. Anyway, three “Yes” votes by the Triple A do not an approval make. Hence, the reported 14 councilors so far who have stained their hands with the grease money, thanks to Triple A. Is everybody happy? Probably not. Only those who dirtied their hands, that’s what grease does. In which case, the other three A’s may, or may not, be guilty of corruption. I hope not, as two of them are known to me personally.
But, no one in the city government, media, the business sector seems ready and willing to name names if only to help the Office of the Ombudsman get to the bottom of this mess. For that matter, one may ask: WHAT MESS? As in previous alleged mulcting activities by councilors on businessmen, this one could end up in the catacombs of forgotten memories, not in a court of law. So, what’s all the noise about?
At least we now know why so many people want to run for city councilor.
