By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
A FORMER barangay chairman of Lapasan over the weekend said that businessman and Barangay 33 chairman Conrad Lim wielded so much influence on city hall, national government offices and even the police years ago that the opposition to his controversial reclamation project in Lapasan fell on deaf ears.
Lim and his project was untouchable then, alleged Antonio Olango, former Lapasan chairman.
In 2008, Olango led a village campaign against the reclamation project. It is now giving public works officials headaches because they could not complete a four-lane coastal road project because Lim has asserted that he has a right over the property that he fenced.
Olango said Lim was enjoying so much political support from the group of the then vice mayor Vicente Emano at that time that he opted not to bring the opposition to the project to the city council despite being advised by the then senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr..
“Unsa may among makuha sa city council niadtong panahona, nga mismo ang city council sa panahon nila ni Dongkoy Emano nag-back-up man sa pageclaim ni Lim diha,” Olango said.
It was during that time when Emano was vice mayor and Lim’s father-in law Alfonso Goking was a city councilor when the local legislature approved a resolution that officially endorsed Lim’s foreshore lease application with the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
Olango said at least eight thousand residents of Lapasan opposed Lim’s project at that time, and even signed a petition against it.
He said copies of the petition were sent to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), among others.
Olango said copies of the petition were also sent to Pimentel and the then senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.
But Olango said that despite their strong opposition, he and other Lapasan residents saw how influential Lim was that local officials at that time and government offices looked the other way.
He said the PPA had no problems with it because it had no plans for that portion of the Lapasan foreshore while DENR and DPWH officials were “silent.”
Olango said the campaign against the reclamation project failed because even police officers were influenced.
“Nag-una sa amo ang daghang police diha sa reclamation ni Lim so wala gyud magsilbi ang among protesta niadtong panahona,” he said.
Olango said he only had one regret during his three years as Lapasan’s barangay chairman. “Ang akong sayop kay wala ko mo-file og kaso ni Lim sa korte.”
He said he has maintained his position against Lim’s reclamation project, and would join those who are opposed to the DPWH’s plan to subject the disputed property to expropriation proceedings.
“Unsa may basihan sa DPWH nga ilang i-expropriate nang property ni Lim nga wala man kanay titulo?” Olango asked rhetorically.
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