Sandiganbayan sets trial vs Iligan lawmaker Siao
The Sandiganbayan is set to proceed with the graft trial of current Iligan City Rep. Frederick Siao for concurring with the city government’s anomalous land lease when he was a councilor in March 2013.
In a 16-page resolution dated Aug. 2, the court’s Third Division denied the motion to quash filed by Siao and another former councilor, Michelle Sweet-Booc.
Siao and Sweet-Booc’s cases arose from their passage of Resolution No. 13-191 on March 4, 2013, authorizing former Mayor Lawrence L. Cruz to extend the city’s lease of seven adjoining parcels of land totaling 20,000 square meters in Barangay Tubod.
The lease, first entered into in Aug. 2004, allegedly did not go through public bidding.
The private contractors, Kiwalan Lumber Company and Salvatori Development Corp., also belong to the Lluch family, to which Cruz was related. —Vince F. Nonato
