More Cadio mischiefs revealed

It appears that there are many stories about Cadio’s mischiefs have been wanting to break to the surface, and the mushrooming of blogs about the super mayor has encouraged former close associates to step forward and share their own experiences.

When Franklin Drilon was appointed as executive secretary sometime in 1992, Cadio broached the idea that they organize a testimonial dinner in honor of a classmate and friend. The suggestion was quickly approved. During the program, the emcee, Atty. Rene Villa, acknowledged Cadio’s role in putting the party together, calling him “Don” Arcadio.

This caused Cadio to blush, and even get angry. Atty. Villa was surprised, thinking that he was giving Cadio the proper credit for the successful party. Later Atty. Villa found out that Cadio had solicited huge contributions from big businessmen, and he had not bothered to make known their contributions. Hence, all the credit fell to him. The businessmen were deprived of the credit. Cadio got all the credit.

Sometime in 2004, then Senate President Franklin Drilon visited Guimaras and promised Governor Rahman Nava to fund the construction of a Hall of Justice building. That announcement was heard by everybody in the group, including contractor Nelson Golez, who drove Drilon in his brand new Isuzu Trooper. Later, Drilon called Cadio by phone and mentioned the funding for the project.

Nelson didn’t bother to tell Cadio that it was not a secret he was telling him. But he knew that this man would take advantage of any situation to make a quick buck.

After the conversation, Cadio called up Nelson Golez, unaware that Golez was there all the while, and as if he was revealing a secret, told Golez about the funding. “Ang commission ko ha?” Cadio told a surprised Golez.

Still involving Nelson Golez, Cadio asked the contractor to give P250,000 cash to help Victor Facultad pursue his protest against mayor Jerry Trenas for an election offense before the Comelec. Ever generous and helpful to his friends, Golez gave the amount to Cadio.

The money never reached Vic Facultad. Golez began to wonder why Vic Facultad didn’t even say thank you to him or acknowledge the help. He found out that the money wasn’t given to Vic Facultad, but went straight to a bank as payment for his loan.

That’s why Nelson Golez doesn’t respect Cadio anymore.

Caught red-handed

My fellow blogger, Steve-on-the-cross, wrote about the scandal that rocked the local sugar industry about a decade ago. What happened was that Cadio Gorriceta, then a member of the board of directors, saw that the amount of P1.3 million was lying idle in the hands of a tractor supplier, Ely Bagtasus. The money was set aside by the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers, Inc. (Panay Fed) as deposit to help several members import farm tractors. It was supposed to be a loan for the members who wanted to buy imported farm tractors. When everybody else was not looking, Cadio Gorriceta told Ely Bagtasus to release to him the money. He claimed that he was acting on behalf of the Panay Fed. So Ely Bagtasus gave him the money, P1.3 million, all in all.

But the filching of the Panay Fed money was discovered when, during a regular meeting of the board, somebody complained about an outstanding loan that he was supposed to have with Panay Fed. Then, it was discovered that several members had a past due account without their prior knowledge. The deposit was distributed as loans to them, and nobody even got to touch the money. It was already in Cadio’s hands. So this theft (how else can you call it?) was exposed, and Cadio was forced to acknowledge that he illegally took it from Bagtasus. In fairness to him, he paid the account in full in several tranches. That’s why Panay Fed, through Atty. de la Cruz, said Cadio was “cleared of any obligations”.

Knowing Cadio, he is now working hard to make it appear the crime never happened, that it’s not true he took the money in the first place. That’s something he’s become good at: hiding his evil deeds by a lot of window dressing. But truth has a way of coming to the surface. I searched the Internet, and lo and behold, I found this .pdf copy of a letter from Ely Bagtasus to Panay Fed on April 10, 2002. The letter speaks of two postdated cheques issued by Cadio Gorriceta payable to Panay Fed in the total amount of P1.3 million. It was described as “payment for the tractor deposits that were released to Phi Beta Enterprises.” It also says that Mr. Gorriceta has agreed to the “redocumentation” of the account under his name. In short, instead of being booked as outstanding loans of the other members, the entire amount was going to be under his name.

To view this letter, just click on the link below:

letter-phi-beta

Where was Cadio when Frank hit Pavia?

On the surface, there is every indication that Cadio Gorriceta is very well loved by the people of Pavia. Dozens of streamers hung all over town professing the people’s love and respect for the “super-mayor” during his birthday make this apparent. “We love you Mayor Gorriceta!” — all the streamers uniformly declared. That would have been believable if only the streamers didn’t show these were made by just one painter. In short, only one person ordered the making of the streamers and putting them up in conspicuous places in Pavia for the general public to know about the people’s sentiments.

That one person was Cadio Gorriceta himself.

Indeed, the people of Pavia will hate Cadio Gorriceta if they only knew the truth about the super-mayor. For instance, the people might want to ask: at the height of Typhoon Frank, when people were scrambling to flee the deathly wave of the floods, where was Cadio Gorriceta? In other municipalities, the mayors courageously directed rescue and relief operations close to the danger areas, ignoring the hazards posed by flying roofs and swift currents of water, just to make sure that everything is done to save lives. But it wasn’t the same with Cadio Gorriceta.

Cadio Gorriceta didn’t even get wet during the crisis. That’s because he was safely ensconced at the airconditioned restaurant of the Days Hotel, enjoying the buffet breakfast and sipping coffee with his friends. There wasn’t a single moment when Cadio Gorriceta really experienced the pain and suffering that his constituents went through. He was like a commander-in-chief situated in a concrete bunker while his people were screaming in fear and clutching at tree branches just to stay alive.

By noon, Cadio Gorriceta felt no urgent reason to hie off to Pavia and assess the damage. He never showed concern about the fate of his people by trying to see what else could be done to get them out of harm’s way. These tasks he left to the hands of his lieutenants. When he started to feel hunger pangs, and he saw that it was lunch time, he bought food from Chow King and visited his brother in Molo to console the latter for the millions of pesos in losses in his piggery project. The shadow of Cadio Gorriceta was nowhere to be seen in the territorial jurisdiction of his town at the time when his leadership was most needed.

This is the reason that Cadio Gorriceta could never claim to the love and respect of his constituents. When his people faced danger, he was in the most secure and safe place in Iloilo — the comfortable restaurant of Days Hotel located on the fourth floor of the Atrium. He made sure that even if the entire city came under water, he would continue to be out of harm’s way. This is a man who will hide in safety while his people are drowning.

This is the reason that Cadio Gorriceta had to manufacture those streamers professing love and respect for him. He is a fake, a product only of the media packaging that he’s become an expert in.

The truth about Cadio

I CAME ACROSS THIS BLOG ARTICLE ON “STEVE’S MUSINGS” on http://steveonthecross.blogspot.com/ and I’M SHARING THIS WITH YOU:

For several days now, the political landscape in Iloilo, particularly in the 2nd district of Iloilo, has been dominated by the bitter attacks of Pavia mayor Arcadio Gorriceta against TESDA secretary Augusto Syjuco and Congw. Judy Syjuco on the issue of the “dakal-dakal” road.

It appears that Gorriceta was particularly incensed by the rebuttal made by Judy Syjuco, made thru a lengthy audio recording broadcast over local radio stations, on her side of the story about the P10.5-million budget for the rehabilitation of a 4-km. road in Pavia that became known as the “dakal-dakal” road.

In her radio address, Congw. Syjuco explained that the purpose of the P10.5-million budget was the “rehabilitation” of the road stretch, actually a provincial road, that was badly damaged as a result of Typhoon Frank. That was the amount available at the moment, and the DPWH intended to make the road passable again by spreading item 201 (dakal-dakal) over the entire road, compact the material with a “pison” and cut the canals along the road.

There’s another amount, P28 million, that is being sought from the DPWH for the ultimate concreting of the project to the desired quality to make the road an alternative avenue linking the city to Sta. Barbara and the airport. The DPWH work program to fill the road with “dakal-dakal” was a remedial measure to bring the road to passable condition.

But it appears that Gorriceta panicked upon learning that it was the DPWH that was going to undertake the project, and not the municipality, as he had negotiated with DOJ sec. Raul Gonzales. He knew that the project was ultimately going to get a bigger budget for the concreting work, and he wanted to implement it for obvious reasons. If the money was going to be coursed through Pavia, he was going to have his choice of contractor. In fact, he had started discussions with his preferred contractor and agreed on the terms, if you know what I mean.

This was the reason Gorriceta was incensed when the DPWH started mobilizing for the first phase of the project. Gorriceta knew that P10.5 million is not enough for the cementing of the road section, but he viewed it on the long-term and saw the P28 million dangling at the end. So he raised hell and made the misleading claim that what was intended to be a cemented road was now just going to be “dakal-dakal”. He was like a spoiled brat who lost his lollipop.

Was Gorriceta really motivated by the project’s outcome? Did he really want to have the project undertaken by the LGU to efficiently undertake the project? Did he really want the government to save money?

Think again. Gorriceta is not that kind of person.

About 10 years ago, a scandal broke out in the top levels of the Panay Sugar Planters Federation when it was discovered that nearly P1 million intended as downpayment for the importation of farm tractors was missing from the coffers of the organization. It was discovered that one member had withdrawn the money, obviously for his personal use, when everybody else in the organization that it had been spent to help sugar planters improve their sugar production.

The board of directors of the Panay Fed was aghast. Not only were its struggling members deprived of the help in buying farm tractors, but the amount was used by one of its leaders for personal purposes. This triggered a bitter and acrimonious board room battle. But there was no way this director who dipped his fingers into the cookie jar could deny the mischief. There were handwritten receipts. Ultimately, he agreed to return the money.

That director who misused the federation’s funds was a man named Arcadio Gorriceta.

That was a decade ago. Fast forward to present day Pavia, where Gorriceta is now the municipal mayor. Not just a municipal mayor, but he portrays himself as a “super mayor”.

Unseen to the public eye is a grand larceny and theft on a grand scale. Gorriceta accuses Syjuco of being a thief. Perhaps he is right. But is he the good guy?

This massive theft involves the diversion of the soil excavated from the floodway that will open a new passageway for the heavy volume of water that flows through the Tigum and Aganan rivers that converge in Pavia. Every day, for more than six months now, there are hundreds of truck loads hauling the dug soil from the floodway project, supposedly for stockpiling in the designated areas approved for the project.

But the “super-mayor” saw an opportunity to enrich himself at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer. How? He pressured the project management office and the contractor, Hanjin, to haul the excavated soil to wide areas of land owned by the Gorriceta family in Pavia, Iloilo. By filling the properties with the excavated soil, super mayor Gorriceta raised the elevation of their lands by about two feet above the road level. This is all for free!

Ask any trucker or contractor and you will learn that filling material costs about P80 per cubic meter. It is estimated that by the time the illegal dumping of the excavated soil to the Gorriceta properties is over, more than 200,000 cubic meters of soil will have been poured there. Simple arithmetic tells you that super mayor Gorriceta will have acquired P16 million worth of filling materials for free! Not only did he get free filling materials: the value of their lands shot up! He also didn’t have to spend a centavo for the hauling. Hanjin did it for free.

It’s a double-windfall for Arcadio Gorriceta. It’s a “winner-take-all” feat that he was able to score by making full use of his position as “super-mayor”. And he was able to accomplish these at the expense of the Filipino taxpayer, and exposing the neighboring properties in Pavia to risk of flooding. At the very least, this involves an issue of conflict of interest. At the far end of the spectrum is a serious offense of unlawfully enriching himself at the expense of the public.

Why is this so?

First, it is usual practice in government projects like the floodway construction to dispose of the excavated soil as “waste material” to be sold to interested buyers, usually real estate companies needing huge volumes of soil as landfill. As mentioned, the going rate is P80 per cubic meter. That’s why the project identified a stockpile area duly approved by the DENR. The stockpile area is carefully chosen so as to avoid “impacting” on the surrounding properties in terms of exposing these to flooding. This is done to make it easier for buyers to get the soil.

What super mayor Gorriceta did was to force Hanjin and the project management office of the DPWH to divert the excavated soil to the family’s two big properties in Pavia without paying a single centavo for it. As a result, the national government, and in turn, the taxpayers, were deprived of untold millions of pesos of excavated soil that could still have been sold to help defray the cost of building the floodway. This is highway robbery! It’s a repeat of the sugar planters federation story a decade ago!

Gorriceta’s properties will more than triple in value as well. With a ground elevation higher than the existing road network, Gorriceta can market the family’s properties at a premium price! Where can one find a better bargain? Free filling material at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer while enhancing the value of their properties. This man is no different from Senate President Manny Villar who doesn’t hesitate to use his clout to pour public money into roads that lead to his subdivisions.

But maybe all these can be forgiven. After all, Arcadio Gorriceta is a “super mayor” and he must be entitled to getting more benefits for the “super performance” that he has accomplished. Never mind that it’s at at the expense of his fellow Pavianhons.

What is repulsive about this whole affair is that “super mayor” Arcadio Gorriceta is exposing the entire municipality to the danger of worst flooding than was seen last June 21, 2008. With the Gorriceta property now two feet above the rest of the municipality, the neighbors will find that in the event of heavy rains, water will not be able to flow out to the usual tributaries and rivers. The Gorriceta will become a dam in the middle of the town! Pavia will now face more danger of flooding than ever.

This is just to present one side of Arcadio Gorriceta that he has camouflaged from the public. There are always two sides of a coin, and this is the flip side. This is the true side of super mayor Gorriceta.