Capitol probe on quarry dummy expose' resumes 
As question hangs, ‘where is the whistle-blower?'

By Florence F. Hibionada

Top Capitol personalities are summoned anew this week for the resumption of the ten-day quarry probe ordered by Governor Niel Tupas.  Focus of the marathon investigation is on the controversy generated by a supposed whistle-blower's expose placing a top governor's aide in a really bad light.

Such as the question hangs, where is the whistle-blower now?

Day one of the Capitol investigation failed to see the accuser and main man of this yet latest hullabaloo hounding the Tupas administration.  Talks then abound over the weekend of an alleged deal being worked on for self-confessed dummy, Lito Jimena to recant his charges against Provincial Administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada.  The report as also relayed to The News Today point to a longtime Capitol employee and known Mejorada associate as the source.  The alleged deal was reportedly being worked on by a common acquaintance of Mejorada and Jimena in a meeting that had the two present in one hotel in the city Thursday afternoon.  Other sources close to the supposed negotiator denied though of such deal and meeting.  

Chaired by noted-lawyer Salvador Cabaluna, Provincial Legal Office chief, the three-man PLO probe team moves to ascertain the propriety and impropriety of the quarry operations of former broadcaster Lito Jimena.   The Provincial Administrator, he declared in various radio interviews, was his “boss” and the real man behind a quarry operation in Anilao, Iloilo.

As such, Cabaluna told TNT , Jimena's serious accusations and allegations will also be looked into for verification and validation.  The investigation began Friday with Mejorada, Jimena and Sol Sucaldito, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) chief among the principal resource persons summoned.  Yet day one only heard the lady PENRO chief with initial questions raised on the matter of Jimena's qualification as a quarry permittee.

"It is an open-door probe and will remain as such throughout the ten days we will be here," the PLO chief added pointed out saying such is to show transparency in their investigation.

For weeks now talks continued and heightened on the Jimena expose'.   Jimena has since said he worked for his "Boss Boy"and became a quarry permittee despite his failure to come up with the required qualifications.

While all the papers are under his name, Jimena bare though that in the final end, checks for payment was issued to Mejorada.

Radio reports confirmed several checks issued to the Provincial Administrator by a contractor with business dealings on the Capitol relative to the quarry operations on the New Iloilo Airport Development Project. However said top Tupas aide argued, the checks were for a private deal that had nothing to do with the quarry where he reserves his right not to divulge it.  Heard over Aksyon Radyo, ace-reporter Johnny Diaz then got hold of the confirmation from the contractor's secretary of said Mejorada checks though she clarified not being privy to the reason of said practice.