SB, Ochoa, et al's last 'HURA'?

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/24-20/2011



Quezon City Hall’s P180-million real estate tax hike was passed some three weeks ago over the vehement objections of many homeowners, businessmen, real estate developers, and -- you will be surprised to know -- even the supposed beneficiaries of QC politicians’ socialized housing program.

The urban poor themselves of such squatter areas as Payatas, Barangay Holy Spirit, Batasan Hills, and 77 others, whom the mayor, vice mayor, and the 24-member city council supposedly pander to, are also opposing the tax hike -- but, more specifically, the socialized housing program that the city government claims it wants to implement.

I was surprised to hear these urban poor associations speak up during a meeting of the Better QC civic groups last Nov. 5 at the QC Sports Club, opposing the real estate tax hike and explaining that Quezon City’s socialized housing program is only intended for those who can pay amortizations set by the administration.

Quarter of a Billion what?
The urban poor certainly know they won’t be able to qualify for this and will only be displaced to make way for those whom city hall will favor.

But the most intriguing part of the whole real estate tax hike for “socialized housing” rigmarole is that there is already money allotted for socialized housing amounting to some P250,000,000 from the Sonny Belmonte period. (Yes, Virginia, that’s TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION or A QUARTER OF A BILLION PESOS.)

But where is this money that Mayor Herbert Bautista can’t seem to find for his socialized housing projects?

Bistek doesn’t really have to look far as I didn’t have to step out of my residence to find out and witness all the documents attesting to this amount and the scandalous way in which it was allocated by the previous administration and who were involved.

All the mayor has to do is turn on his computer or iPad and go to www.betterqc.org.

HURA Incorporators
There he will find the registration of a corporation named Quezon City Housing and Urban Renewal Authority, Inc. (QC-HURA), with the following incorporators and directors (and their respective capital contributions):

1. Feliciano Belmonte           P1,000.00
2. Herbert Bautista                 1,000.00
3. Jesus Suntay                       1,000.00 
4. Tadeo Palma                      1,000.00
5. Paquito Ochoa                    1,000.00
6. Bernadette Herrera-Dy       1,000.00
7. Salvador Enriquez               1,000.00

And then, lo and behold, the Quezon City government contributes the following amount for the capitalization of the corporation (fasten your seatbelt): P249,993,000 -- making the total subscribed capital P250,000,000.

Paquito Ochoa was made corporate treasurer.

And so the question arises now: Is he still holding that position simultaneous with his being Executive Secretary of BS Aquino III?

Where’s the Money?
The QC-HURA was organized and registered in May 2003.

Has the money been frittered away that QC has to raise P180 million yearly from its home and real estate owners?

Something very fishy is going on, reminiscent of the sale of the Marcos properties in Stockton and the PAL property in Union Square, USA by Sonny Belmonte when he headed GSIS during the early years of Cory Aquino; as fishy as the rags-to-riches real estate developer in QC reportedly tied to the HURA and the coattails of Belmonte from the time of the latter’s GSIS stint.

When former QC Mayor Sonny Belmonte finished his term last 2010 and set his sights for the Speakership of the House, he had published claims that his administration left behind a budget surplus of P6.5 billion.

Treading Straight Path
When current Mayor Herbert Bautista started raising this call for new real estate taxes that really amounted to a whopping 25% increase overnight, the Better QC Movement naturally queried him about Belmonte’s surplus.

Well, it now seems that the surplus, like QC-HURA’s P250,000,000 is nowhere to be found.

It may never have existed and, as some claim, may have even been diverted to the respective 2010 campaigns of BS Aquino III and the former mayor.

Of course, the Executive Secretary of the “Daang Matuwid” government, who could never walk straight with morning drinks when he was QC administrator (solely because, it is said, he is brod-in-law to a Belmonte crony), is allegedly privy to all these.

With a background like this, how can Malacañang claim to be walking the straight and narrow?

Loving the Poor
Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte (whose father is the former mayor), and the 24 councilors of Quezon City shouldn’t be allowed to burden the city’s taxpayers until they fully explain the Commission on Audit’s findings, as reported in the news, of 3,000 “ghost employees” in city hall, amounting to at least P200 million in salaries annually.

Further, the mayor has P20 million in confidential expenses, another P20 in intelligence expenses, P10 million for honoraria, P70 million for donations (made to god knows what), while the vice-mayor has a budget of P116 million, and the councilors have over P40 million each per year.

Plus, the total budget of Quezon City in 2009 was P8.7 billion, and today it is estimated at over P10 billion.

And yet they couldn’t get a measly 2% from that to devote to their socialized housing for the poor whom they “love so much”?

What’s more likely is that they’d love to kick these people out of their small plots in order to let their crony developer takeover these to sell off to some “sosyal” home buyers in and out of the city.

Given these startling revelations, we may yet see the “Last Hurrah” of the Belmonte-Ochoa gang in Quezon City soon.

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