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RESULTS of the ad hoc committee investigation into the P98 million Balili property purchase will be revealed only after Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia takes action on their recommendations next week, a Capitol spokesman said yesterday.
?The governor is busy and has yet to read the report. But the moment she finished reading it and formulated her actions on the recommendations, then everything will be released,? said Capitol consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda.
In yesterday's press conference, Sepulveda showed a covered copy of the 15-page report but declined to show its contents to reporters.
He only said the committee investigation submitted to the governor last Thursday issued a recommendation on the case.
Regional Director Medardo de Lemos of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7), who chaired the adhoc committee, said they didn't recommend the filing of charges against those involved in the land deal.
He declined to elaborate on the report other than saying that it identified the principal persons in the case, such as PB member Juan Bolo, whom he said had brokered the Balili property purchase.
The seven person committee was tasked by the governor last year to investigate the Capitol's purchase of the 24 hectare property.
But most of the property was classified in a survey by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as coastal timberland and thus not for sale.
The survey showed that 20 hectares bought from the late Engr. Luis Balili in barangay Tina-an, Naga City were either underwater or were planted with mangroves.
Sepulveda, one of the committee members, said the report is more comprehensive than the Provincial Board (PB) inquiry into the case.
De Lemos said the committee was tasked to determine the ?actual and legal? status of the parcels of lands in the Balili beach property in Naga City, southern Cebu and identify the persons involved in finalizing the land deal.
He said it would be up to Garcia whether or not to file charges against them.
?I won't say whether or not we were biased in conducting the investigation. We never volunteered to do it. Let them (people) judge our output,? De Lemos said.
The NBI-7 chief said they made their recommendations based on the evidence at hand.
When asked on Garcia's role in the deal, De Lemos smiled and said she sent an affidavit to the committee to shed light on the deal.
Ecology lawyers, who disclosed the DENR survey results, were not invited, Sepulveda said, since they ?had no personal knowledge of the case.?
