” MEASLY SUM FOR MANDAUE”

By Tonton Alcos Antogop

 

Somebody made money from Big Hotel while the Mandaue City goverment merely got a measly amount.

Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna revealed that Katumanan Hardware Corp. got P25M outright from Cenore Corporation while the Mandaue City goverment merely got P3.3M spread for 15 years in annual rental fee.

Cenore Corp. whose President is Roderick Ngo operates Big Hotel had rented out the lot from Katumanan Hardware through a DEED OF ASSIGNMENT and a subsequent MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT conformed by then Mayor Jonas Cortes on June 14,  2013 where Ngo”s company paid P25 million.

In contrast, Katumanan just rented the property from the Mandaue City government for over P3 million up to 2022.

“Ang tenant nga Katumanan hardware nakadawat ug nakaginansya ug twenty five million sa pag-assign niya sa iyang rights ngadto sa Cenore. Kita nga tag-iya sa yuta mga three million lang after pa sa pila ka tuig,” Fortuna told Newsph.org.

Earlier, the Vice Mayor detested over the rental fee of Katumanan where he pointed out that based on the schedule of payment, it merely paid P12 per square meter annually to the city government for the first 7 years beginning in June 2007 up to 2014.

“Dose pesos ra alkanse gyud, I can not in conscience accept it,” the Vice Mayor said during a recess of their very heated regular session yesterday afternoon where they tackled the issue as earlier that day Mayor Gabriel Luis “Luigi” Quisumbing issued a CLOSURE ORDER to Big Hotel and its two other allied establishments.

The Vice Mayor had heated exchange with councilors Nenita Layese, Ernie Manatad and Marcelino del Mar, all political allies of Cong. Cortes.

This year the annual rental payment of Katumanan for the 14,408 square meters Mandaue City owned lot already reached P20 per square meter (not P1,728 as earlier reported) as the rental would increased by 10{a21e6da08482d397a607007d7d78265068006afe8b45ef39eb0952d5fa730076} on the eight year compounded every two years.

Atty. Jamaal James Calipayan, the chief of staff of Cong. Cortes labeled the issue however as merely political insisting that all the transactions were legal.

A copy of the CONTRACT OF LEASE  however obtained by Newsph.org bared that Calipayan who was then not employed with the office of Cortes yet “notarized” the document where Cortes and Elbert Paragoso, the president of Katumanan hardware were the signatories.

A DEED OF ASSIGNMENT was executed between Katumanan and Cenore which was conformed by Cortes but the same was not legally binding according to Atty. Ellaine Bathan, the chief of staff of Mayor Quisumbing, as the same did not passed through the city council.

Bathan and the legal officers of Mandaue City invoked Sec. 22 of the local goverment code (R.A. 7160) Corporate Powers (c) which states, “Unless otherwise provided in this code, no contract may be entered into by the Local Chief Executive in behalf of the Local Government Unit without prior authorization by the Sanggunian concerned.”

The closure order also affected Linear
Coffee which operates inside the 3-star hotel and its annex Big Hotel Suites, as the three also operated wthout business permits.

Apart from the closure order, Mayor Quisumbing thru Atty. Bathan also posted a notice to all the clients of the hotels and its employees explaining the action of the city government.

The Public Employment Service Office (PESO) of Mandaue City will assist the affected employees, citing that they have to take legal action based also on a Commission on Audit (COA) report surrounding the leasing of the establishment.

Mayor Quisumbing will face off with Cong. Cortes in the forthcoming May 2019 elections. They used to be political allies but severed their ties since last year.

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