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Baguio City mayor breaks silence on SC contempt

BAGUIO CITY (May 7) — Unlike others at the prime of their lives who have slumbered into a peaceful retired life, Baguio City Mayor Braulio D. Yaranon, now 78, is still fighting the best of his battles.

Yaranon, a former city councilor in the 60’s and a retired Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge is still upbeat in his crusade against a private pay parking system that had taken over the city’s roads and streets. For this cause, he was often called “a stubborn man”.

Yaranon’s fight, he thinks however is a fight for “truth”.

Breaking his silence on last week’s Supreme Court (SC) arrest order against him for direct and indirect contempt for not “opening” Baguio streets for Jadewell Parking Systems Corporation’s (Jadewell) operation of pay parking, Yaranon brushed aside Jadewell’s perceived victory at the High Tribunal.

“To set the record straight,” the mayor said, “it is not true, as insinuated by Jadewell and its publicists, that the Honorable Supreme Court has rendered a decision favorable to it in the cases pending before the Honorable Tribunal.”

Although admitting the fight against Jadewell has suffered a setback with the SC decision, Yaranon claimed this is temporary. He admitted ordering the opening of the supposed streets closed by the mayor’s office for Jadewell but insisted they will keep “Ganza and Burnham parking spaces closed because these are within the Burnham Park Reservation that is covered by an agreement totally separate from the on-street parking agreement that is the subject of the rescission case.”

The mayor said they were moving for reconsideration by the SC on its April 20 decision.

Yaranon vowed “to continue the legal battle to recover the streets and parks with greater resolve and determination.” Yaranon issued Executive Order No. 1-004 in June 2004 which recognizes the citizens’ right not to pay public revenue to Jadewell, which is a private entity. The order ise based on Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code.

Politics dragged in

Yaranon won over former Mayor Bernardo Vergara by a wide margin which was believed as a victory for those opposing Jadewell. Yaranon still believes that Vergara and his running mate, incumbent Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan, are apparently behind moves against him, the latest being the April 20 SC order.

“The Domogan-Vergara group and their publicists obviously hold the view that the pay parking scheme dubiously awarded to Jadewell, is the best thing that has ever happened to the City of Baguio and its people,” Yaranon said.

The mayor insisted that the transaction which involves the use and expenditure of public funds and property (that is the city streets), “has failed to pass audit by the Commission on Audit (COA)”.

Yaranon claimed administrative and criminal cases have been filed before the Ombudsman by the COA against Domogan and Vergara and members of the bidding committee that “falsely certified Jadewell to be a qualified bidder when in truth it is not.”

Both Vergara and Domogan denied Yaranon’s accusations that they colluded with Jadewell on the controversial pay parking scheme. They both cited Traffic Ordinance number 003-2000 as the basis of Jadewell’s operation and an earlier Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the City and Jadewell. Yaranon had questioned the MOA.

The mayor said he would personally take the initiative to file criminal cases for usurpation of authority, falsification of public documents, use of falsified documents, misappropriation of public funds, and violation of the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act against Domogan and Vergara including their alleged cohorts and Jadewell “to whom these officials gave away the city’s streets and parks literally for a song.”

Yaranon further said that the cases he would file would be based on the findings of a Special Audit Team of the COA conducted several years ago. He said that these former city officials delegated law enforcement and judicial authority to Jadewell, a private entity, and its personnel “to the damage, injury, and prejudice of the City Government and the citizenry of Baguio.”

The mayor insisted that the pay parking scheme in the city “is the product of infamous institutionalized graft and corruption by the Domogan-Vergara group”, such being now the subject of a libel complaint of Domogan and Vergara versus Yaranon.

Domogan, who was then the mayor during the signing of the agreement with Jadewell however maintains that all was in order in the Jadewell’s contract with the city. Vergara, who was then the congressman also said that he had nothing to do with the Jadewell deal.

Tougher stance vs. Jadewell

Yaranon is even talking tougher when he said that the city government will stand by his Executive Order 1-004 recognizing the right of the citizenry to refuse to pay public revenue to a private entity and to refuse to submit to the enforcement of Traffic Ordinance 003-2000 by Jadewell personnel.

He added that he would stand by his directive to the city police to apprehend and impound the heavy clamping devices and the heavy tow trucks used by Jadewell personnel “to threaten motorists into submission to their enforcement of the traffic ordinance.” # Artemio A. Dumlao for NORDIS

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