FORMER Manila mayor Alfredo Lim is facing graft raps before the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged irregular installation of parking ticket machines at city streets during his term from 2010 to 2013.
Lim’s accuser is Ricardo Cruz, through his lawyer Moses Pua, who filed the suit against the former mayor and two private executives vice president Rorie Cariaga of the Tokagawa Global Corp. and managing officer Napoleon Ibalio of the Matsuyama Corp. The complaint cited an Oct. 13 report from the city auditor’s office of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
The evaluation report of supervising auditor Mario Lipana showed the tripartite memorandum of agreement signed among Lim, Cariaga and Ibalio was “grossly disadvantageous” to the city government, he said.
“The city auditor’s report itself describes the [TMoA] as grossly disadvantageous to the city. As an active citizen of the Philippines and resident of Manila, the complainant cannot sit idly and ignore the blatant disregard and corruption of our laws,” Cruz’s complaint read.
Under the arrangement, the city government would take only 20 percent as its share from the parking income, while the remaining 80 percent would go to the private contractors.
In 2013 and 2014, the city was able to get P61 million out of the total income of P277 million.
Despite the contractors’ investment of P11.5 million only, a huge sum of P216 million went to them, the lawyer said.
He questioned the contract’s 25-year life span, saying the turnover of the devices during the contract expiration would no longer be serviceable.
In his estimation, Cruz said the two contractors would have earned P2.77 billion, while Manila would only get P693.48 million.