I AM very grateful to the small but terrible member of the “Consejo” of the Kingdom by the Lunok, Tonio D’Great who uncovered another scam in the administration of Datu Pandit, the millions upon millions of pesos spent to buy lands for hundreds of relocatee kuno “squatter-beneficiaries”.

I put the words between quotation marks to show the farce committed under the lordship of the New Trio Los Bobos, namely, Datu Pandit the ring leader and his side kicks Kitkit and Tukmol. What added to their tribe is the realtor-commissioner member of the Sanggunian named Etsoy.

Nearly nine years into office but we have yet to see Datu Pandit implementing honest-to-goodness collection of payments for these relocation sites the Kingdom provided to both rich and poor constituents.

His greatest feat in this regard is the Housing Scam in the Kingdom of R. Cadio that resulted to his constituents paying P17,000 daily for the interests alone of the P130-million loan that financed the unfinished, overpriced and substandard housing project for kingdom employees.

R. Cadio is not involved here but he wishes the media not to drag his kingdom into it by the use of the more popular term “Heno de Pavia Housing Scandal”. Instead, it should be called, he suggests, “Housing Scandal of the Kingdom by the Lunok at Heno de Pavia”, or simply “Housing Scam”, period.

Back to the Kingdom by the Lunok. The subsidies housing lots are found in La Paz, Jaro, Mandurriao, Arevalo and Molo. The one implementing it is Hakupao.

Data gathered by Tonto D’Great show that since their first term, the New Trio Los Bobos squandered the people’s money in the guise of relocating squatters. The sites they established do not have subdivision plans to determine common spaces like roads, paths, plaza and others, as well as the parcels allotted for occupants and would-be occupants.

Worse, they have no system to determine beneficiaries. Many deserving poor and homeless residents have not availed of the lot while others, in contrast, who are disqualified because they have properties and financial resources to buy their own, were able to come in.

I have with me data on different relocation sites but I will just pick a few samples. At the site in Jaro, Block 10, spouses Dennis and Ellen Minerva who are listed as beneficiary of one lot, are missing. Instead, their piece of land is being occupied by one Lolita Baldomer. Another lot in the same block is settled by one Jonalyn Juntado but the “qualified beneficiary” found in the Hakupao files are spouses Orlando and Nilda Jubelag. Five other lots have no qualified beneficiaries but the same harbors Reynel Matutino, Sisa Carpio, Marisan Gadong, Rosita Alaba, and Lolita Lavalle, all, not listed as beneficiaries.

What happened, Datu Pandit, Kitkit and Tukmol?

In La Paz, let’s take Block 1. Lot 23 thereof is supposed to be occupied by the beneficiaries qualified by Hakupao like spouses Serafin and Cynthia Miranda, but only one Catherine Espelita lives there. Lots 29 and 14 are intended for spouses Antonio and Edna Gubatanga and Delia Fabrigar, respectively. Those two parcels are actually occupied by Leonarda Dalisay and Cecilia Llabores, respectively.

Datu Pandit, Kitkit and Tukmol should compel Kabkab, chieftain of Hakupao to explain in detail how this happened.

At the relocation site in Sto. Nino Sur Arevalo, there is rampant selling and leasing of lots in violation of the very purposes for which the program is established. Even part of the talipapa site, where vendors converge to sell fish, vegetables and fruits, was converted to a house by Hakupao employee Donato Milleza.

The lots are not free or dole outs. The kingdom is supposed to charge modest fees from beneficiaries in order to give them a sense of responsibility and the dignity that comes from the thought that one is able to buy a lot from his own sweat and sacrifices.

However, the city collected none from the occupants.

Tonto D’Great opines that the kingdom purposely skirted collecting from occupants for political reasons. Politics is also the reason why non-qualified people were able to get into the relocation sites.

Don’t get me wrong. I, too, rejoice when, as result of the cheap housing program, the poor citizens of the kingdom are able to improve their lives. However, it is very disturbing that the fortune reaped by the relocatees came from elsewhere. That they were able to construct two- to three-storey concrete structures upon transfer, therefore showing they were already well-off at the time they came in.

How the undeserving ones were able to benefit is a question not even the Holy Spirit can answer.They are still itching to buy one piece of land after another, for “land banking” in order to make the kingdom better prepared for more beneficiaries kuno. They only stir malicious minds to suspect that the motive for the rush is the commission and kickback that comes when the kingdom through the Honorable Etsoy jacks up prices of its purchases.

Right, Datu Pandit, Kitkit and Tukmol?

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