Real intention

Well, I hope Carcar City Mayor Nicepuro Apura didn’t do it during office hours. I mean, the harassment that he allegedly committed against a public school teacher in Sitio Lamakan, Barangay Valladolid last Thursday. Oh, and that he had his men cut some trees on the property, even though he didn’t have a permit to do so.

Apura may have shown documents from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, but I’m pretty sure these weren’t giving him the go-ahead to chop down 15 chicos, one macopa and a nangka.

Trust me, the complainant, Marlene Cantiberos Entienza, counted.

Now, I have yet to see the two-minute video of the confrontation between her and the mayor that was posted on the social network Facebook, but, as of last Tuesday, it had already been shared 3,000 times and viewed 96,000 times. So I don’t know what the public have to say about the mayor’s strut.

I mean, how else would you describe this

statement: “Ako ning yuta, ako ning kahoy. Dili tanan pagputol og kahoy kailangan magkuha og court order (This is my property, these are my trees. Not every cutting of tree requires a court order).” But here’s what I don’t understand.

In a statement, the mayor admitted that he wasn’t able to acquire the property owned by Entienza’s late father, Ernesto Cantiberos. But in the video (that I didn’t see), he reportedly said that the property is rightfully his.

Also, Entienza told reporters that her father bought the property from his siblings in 2014 yet for P150,000. She even produced a waiver of rights signed by his siblings to prove that he owns the property.

Then she also admitted that her father’s siblings sold the same property to the mayor for P1.2 million without telling her.

It seems to me that Apura should be going after Cantiberos’s siblings, and not the public school teacher. After all, they were the ones who sold him the property that wasn’t rightfully theirs to sell. And what was the mayor doing, buying property without double-checking to make sure its title was clean?

According to the report of SunStar Cebu’s Justin K. Vestil, the disputed property is a stone’s throw away from Carcar’s P433-million City Hall complex.

And, according to rumors, Apura bought the properties with the intention of selling these to the City Government.

I don’t know if these are true. I’m sure the mayor would do no such thing while he or any of his relatives are in power. Just to avoid any talk. You know.

Unless Apura is planning to donate the properties to the City Government. Now wouldn’t that be a noble gesture worthy of Mayor Nice?