Zubiri says estranged friend behind ‘smear campaign’

By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

“I CANNOT declare owning something that I do not have.”

This, in a nutshell, is Bukidnon Gov. Jose Ma. Zubiri Jr.’s answer to the group that has been pushing for his disqualification in the coming May polls for alleged “untruthful disclosure, non-disclosure, and non-submission” of Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALN).

In an interview with the Gold Star Daily, Zubiri said he felt betrayed by someone he once called “partner,” and accused him of being “ultimately” behind the petition to disqualify him.

He was also fuming with what he called “imaginary” complaints the Pangantucan-based Unified Kirinteken Ilantongan Menuvu Tribal Council Inc. filed against him before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Zubiri said the Comelec provincial election supervisor told him the preliminary examination of the petition for disqualification filed by the group led by The Rev. Datu Intakdaw Anota, also known as Irenias Anota, “has no legal basis.”

“This is clearly, merely, a political harassment designed to discredit me given my long list of accomplishments in the province,” blurted a visibly seething Zubiri.

Anota sent a packet of documents to this paper last week with a timeline that points to the perceived inconsistencies in the governor’s declarations of assets from 2006 to 2014. The timeline was prepared and signed by one Levi F. Taraman, also known as Datu Mantaraman.

In the timeline document, Taraman alleged that Zubiri did not declare his real estate properties in Bukidnon (land and building) in his 2006 SALN.

“I admit it because there is nothing to declare. In the year 2006, I no longer own any real property in the province of Bukidnon. A sketch map is not a proof of ownership of any landholding,” Zubiri said.

On Thursday, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption-Bukidnon chairman Rodolfo Pancrudo e-mailed this paper an article by Levi F. Taraman (Datu Mantaraman), accusing the governor of being an agrarian reform beneficiary.

In it, Taraman wrote: “In 1993, he (Zubiri) applied a resettlement project of 1,393 hectares of timberland claimed by the native as their ancestral domain, adjacent to Rancho Mercedes of Luis Guingona which was only borrowed from the natives in 1920 by Don Manolo Fortich who promised to return in 10 years for pasture land lease.”

Taraman alleged that in 1996, Zubiri applied for a Certificate of Land Ownership Award for his ranch, formerly Rancho Mercedes, which “was transferred to him (Zubiri) without consulting the native owners.”

“The 5,500,445 sqm and including all existing residents in the periphery of the Ranch and basing on the survey of the Bureau of Lands under Commonwealth Net No. 141, Lot No. 4390 was approved into a Cloa title Oct#: AO 8909 under the name of a young man Renato V. Retazo, the son of his (Zubiri) driver,” Taraman alleged.

Zubiri, for his part, confirmed of having acquired the real property Anota has been referring to in his petitions he filed before the Comelec and the Ombudsman. He said he bought the property long before the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law and the Indigenous People’s Rights Act were enacted in 1987 and 1997, respectively.

The governor also pointed out that, by law, the landowner is granted five hectares of the “Carped” land.

“I bought the property from the Guingona family (3,000 hectares), Jose Alvarez, and Oscar Santos (a businessman from Pampanga) in 1974. Along with the land purchase, it also had 2,368 heads of cattle,” he said.

The so-called Zubiri Ranch houses two residential buildings, a receiving area, a garage, a warehouse, an office building, and six staff houses for the employees and ranch hands. Zubiri added he still has 110 heads of cattle and 120 heads of sheep.

“It used to be a pasture land but I wanted to plant sugarcane so I distributed the cattle to my (employees),” Zubiri recalled.

“I’ve maintained some cattle and sheep para naay maluto kung adunay bisita,” he said.

The governor explained that he has since transferred and distributed the landholdings to his five children.

Meanwhile, Taraman claimed that Zubiri is a “leader-investor of Sugarcane Farmers of Bukidnon Multi-Purpose Cooperative with an authorized capital of P160 million.”

“He (Zubiri) said that he had business interests and financial connections but he did not disclose the amount of the acquisition,” Taraman wrote.

“I am not a leader-investor of Sugarcane Farmers of Bukidnon Multi-Purpose Cooperative, therefore, I do not have to declare it in my SALN,” Zubiri shot back.

In the year 2007, the governor explained, he was able to dispose of his real property located at Calatagan, Batangas, which at that time, has a current fair market value of P80 million, and his residential condominium in the US which was valued that year at P30 million.

“I used the proceeds of the sale of both those properties to acquire stock equity in the amount of P1.2 million and to acquire money market placements in the amount of P84 million,” said Zubiri.

“I declared the acquisition of both stock equity and money market placements in 2007 SALN, particularly in the investment item,” he added.

Zubiri said the allegations are “all blatant lies and the complainant and his cohorts have no proof whatsoever.”

“This certain Datu Intakdaw Lb. Anota, Irenias Anota, is just being used by desperate people who want to bring me down,” Zubiri lamented.

In the same interview, Zubiri showed this paper a copy of a resolution of the Federation Ethnic Tribes of the Philippines Inc., a federation of tribal organizations of which Anota used to be a member.

On Sept. 21, 2015, the Federation’s board of directors and trustees unanimously agreed to expel and terminate the membership of Anota from their organization due to alleged anomalous transactions using the name of the organization.

“(Anota) illegally collected fees from the tribal members in Adtuyon, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, when they were not yet organized [sic] in the amount of P525,” reads the board resolution in part.

Zubiri said he was disappointed that Pancrudo, once his close friend, became entangled in the disqualification petition before the Comelec.

“We used to be very close. I made him a vice president of a big company,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri alleged that Pancrudo was involved in a case of price-padding in the purchase of medicines for four provincial hospitals in Bukidnon.

He alleged that Pancrudo and his wife were found guilty of “purchasing medicines without the benefit of bidding and the purchase was not approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.”

Zubiri said he and the then governor Alexander Calingasanhad an understanding that Pancrudo could still file an appeal on his case.

“The investigation uncovered that the wife had been doing it for at least three years on all four hospitals,” Zubiri said.