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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – A former MassKara Festival organizer refused to submit to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) copies of their audited financial statements.
“I have no responsibility to the present (city) administration,” stressed Rhoderick Samonte, chairman of the Kasadya Bacolod Development Foundation, Inc. which handled the world-renowned festival from 2013 to 2015.
In November, the SP asked the Kasadya and the Silver MassKara Festival Organization (SMFO), which organized the recent MassKara, to furnish it copies of audited financial statements.
Samonte said he has not yet received any official communication regarding the request.
“There is nothing that I should do,” he said yesterday.
“And as far as [the MassKara from] 2013 up to 2015 is concerned, everything was very clear. It (financial statement) was submitted to the mayor,” who at the time was Monico Puentevella, said Samonte.
“We were accountable to him (Puentevella) and no one else,” he stressed.
Any party interested in Kasadya’s financial statements, not only for the MassKara but also for its other activities, may ask for them at the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Samonte said.
The Kasadya chairman does “not see any reason why we have to liquidate now.”
He stressed that they have not received any money from the city government, especially from the present administration.
Evelio Leonardia, the current mayor, is a political archrival of Puentevella.
Leonardia defeated Puentevella, who sought re-election, in May. When he took over on June 30,
Leonardia again designated the SMFO, headed by director Eli Francis Tajanlangit, as MassKara organizer.
The SMFO also organized the festival during Leonardia’s previous mayoral term, from 2010 to 2013.
Leonardia ran for congressman in the 2013 midterm election and won, while Puentevella took over the mayorship.
On Nov. 3, councilors Em Ang, Caesar Distrito, Renecito Novero, Cindy Rojas, Elmer Sy, and Bartolome Orola voted in favor of the resolution asking the SMFO to submit a financial statement and the subsidiary motion asking the Kasadya to do the same.
Claudio Jesus Puentevella, Sonya Verdeflor and Wilson Gamboa Jr. opposed the subsidiary motion, while Ann Marie Palermo abstained.
For his part, Tajanlangit said they are currently accounting for their sponsorships in kind and might be able to submit the financial statement within the month./PN
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