BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said that all his existing properties were legally acquired through his practice of his legal profession even before joining politics, saying that not one among his properties were acquired illegally.
The local chief executive underscored that when he was lawyering for some Ibaloi families in Baguio and Benguet, he was compensated not through monetary considerations but through parcels of lands owned by the said families, thus, the existence of his property in Irisan.
He said it is unfortunate that there are some political quarters who had been always rehashing the issue on his properties every election when he has time and again answered the said issue being hurled against him.
“It is easy for our critics to just issue libelous, malicious and baseless statements that I own properties but they were not able to show conclusive proofs that I really own the properties that they have been pinpointing. It is unfortunate that such issues regarding my properties only crop up during the elections,” Domogan stressed.
He added that he will include in his statement of assets and liabilities and net worth the inheritance of his wife from her mother once the extrajudicial settlement process shall have been completed because he adheres to the policy of transparency in publicly stating his assets because they had been legally acquired.
According to him, it is unfortunate that his critics simply point to several buildings and lands in the different parts of the city and concluding that such structures and lands are his properties without presenting conclusive proofs that the said properties are actually his just to mislead the people, saying that such practice of irresponsible aspirants for elective positions should be condemned by the people.
Instead of believing into the misinformation being done by his rivals and critics, Domogan appealed to the city’s electorate to scrutinize the public and private lives of his rivals so that they will be able to see for themselves who among them deserves to serve the people and pursue the implementation of development projects so that they will have a clearer view of who is really ready to serve.
It can be recalled that during the May 2013 mid-term elections, his rivals and critics went to the extent of identifying the property of his sister-in-law in Quezon Hill as his own which was subsequently negated.
He admitted that his way of life had improved through the years after having successfully practiced as a lawyer for nearly two decades and as a public servant for a similar period but all the properties that he was able to acquire were done above board and a product of his hardwork.
The city mayor claimed the people of the city are intelligent voters and they know who are those deserving public servants to lead them in the next three years and that such misleading information and criticisms from his rivals will just help in depicting what kind of leadership will the city have if they will elect the wrong brand of leaders to occupy sensitive positions in the city government after the May 9, 2016 general and automated elections./Dexter A. See
