Ardivilla dares Villanueva to sue him
ROXAS CITY – Board Member Gilbert Ardivilla challenged Provincial Legal Counsel Jose “Joe” Villanueva and Gov. Victor Tanco, Sr. to file damage suit against him for the foiled P210 million proposed loan by the province from United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) to finance the proposed one-stop-shop business center in Brgy. Tiza here.
“I’m standing firm relative to my action in seeking legal opinion from a constitutional body Commission on Audit (COA) regarding the irregularities in the passage of Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) resolution on P210 million and its supplemental budget (appropriation ordinance) no. 6,” Ardivilla said.
Ardivilla also strongly denied that politics is behind his on opposition to the said proposed loan adding that he is only protecting the interest of the people.
According to him, the proposed business center was only worth P60 million during the stint of former Governor Vicente Bermejo (now city mayor) and he wondered why the budget reached to P210 million in the present administration.
Ardivilla said that there was no sketch plan on the proposed business center to determine its value.
Gov. Tanco said earlier that the proposed business center has increased its cost considering the continued increase in the price of labor and materials and besides it is different from the proposed building of the previous administration.
Ardivilla argued Villanueva’s statement that the proposed loan was valid, legal, effective and enforceable and has legs to stand on.
According to him, the said loan was imperfect since the approval of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) was a mere ‘credit line’ since the province failed to complete other conditions such as deed of assignment on recurring revenue and real estate mortgage which are included in the pre-requisite to obtain loan.
Ardivilla clarified that the business center should be self-reliant and not be dependent on Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) funds of the province in the payment of bank amortization while the real estate mortgage as other condition of the loan is not valid since the proposed site has 500 square meters which is partly owned by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) where its building stands.
Last Friday, Villanueva threatened to file damage suits against people which led to the non-realization of the proposed loan.
Ardivilla and Vice Governor Felipe Barredo sought the COA’s opinion regarding the proposed loan whether or not it was legal and valid.
Villanueva blamed Ardivilla for presenting uncompleted documents to Commission on Audit (COA) regional office resulting to unfavorable findings from the said agency.
He added that the UCPB withdrew the proposed P210 million loan in favor of the provincial government because it is very sensitive on the issues raised by Ardivilla.
The COA findings said that the proposed loan was illegal and invalid.