Underwater

Let me tell a funny story.

The Koreans had a problem. They had a whole load of highly toxic coal ash and nowhere to put it. The province of Cebu agreed to let them dump it here. What's a little toxic waste going to hurt anybody anyway? So the province purchased several hectares of land from the estate of Balili.

Here's the problem. Environmental groups were paying real close attention to this deal and after some scrutiny, they discovered that almost all of the lands purchased were submerged. What this means is that somehow the province just did not know. Somehow this deal passed through the provincial board and all other prerequisite committees without anyone actually having seen the lots with a small environmentalist group doing their job for them. No surveys, no nothing apparently. It looks like everyone was asleep on the job. Everyone. Sometimes I wonder how our officials manage to breathe.

What this looks like is that someone was trying to make a fast buck hoping nobody would notice. The cost of the lots were quite high at about 98.9 million pesos compared to about 25 million peso down payment the Koreans gave us. Not only does it look like someone was out to make money on overpriced lots but also that the toxic coal ash dump deal wasn't worth it.

Naturally our dear, sweet, do-no-wrong Governor is in a lot of hot swamp water for this scandal. She apologized but whatever. What's done is done. See, the submerged lots were titled. Before, the issue was brought up that the titles for underwater land should be reviewed by court for being, I don't know, stupid? Nobody raised the issue. Now, there's not much the province can do. For all intents and purposes, there was nothing wrong with the deal. If they go to court, good luck trying to prove fraud by the estate. Either way, the province would look extremely negligent and even stupider than they do now.

Naturally, the Governor's archenemy the Mayor has been hammering away at this issue non stop. Finally he has real ammo against the Governor. He's very happy. Usually, he's only this happy when criminals get shot on their way out of prison.