Manuel Villar is the deputy mayor of Alicante and the person appointed to chair the commission that, by unanimous decision of the municipal plenary, was established to try to clarify the circumstances that led to the irregular awarding of public housing in Alicante. Yesterday, in response to questions from this newspaper, after four sessions of a commission in which only one retired official has testified, Villar admitted that it will be the ongoing judicial investigation that clarifies what happened. Because although he maintains that the government team is doing the right thing, he did not even commit his own cooperation: Villar assured that he will appear – it would be strange for the president of the commission to be absent only to not appear – because Vox has requested it, but he then stated that “it is another matter whether he will respond.”
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The final blow to the usefulness of the municipal commission, if there was any doubt left, was given yesterday by the writings of two relevant city council officials. None other than the deputy secretary of the City Council, Germán Pascual, who is de facto the secretary – always sitting next to the mayor at every plenary since 2008, as he has served as such for 18 years “accidentally” – and the auditor, Francisco Guardiola, offered far-fetched excuses to avoid the procedure. The first argued that appearing is not among his duties and the second simply pointed out that he will be out of the city on May 21 and 22, Thursday and Friday of next week.
The auditor argues that he will be out of the city on May 21 and 22, Thursday and Friday of next week
The commission was approved in plenary on February 5, more than three months ago, and so far only one of the 20 summoned people has appeared. Among the absentees, in addition to those directly involved in the alleged irregularities, are the aforementioned officials, but also politicians of different affiliations (the former socialist mayor Gabriel Echávarri and the former councilor of his party Sofía Morales; the current PP councilor Mari Carmen de España or her former colleagues Carlos Castillo and María Dolores Padilla, or the former Compromís councilor Natxo Bellido, among others).
For the left-wing groups, it is clear that the warning issued by the government team, in the sense that whatever was declared in the commission could be used in court, sought to deactivate the commission. At this point, neither has the mayor Luis Barcala, who reacted with apparent indignation when the scandal was revealed by an article in the newspaper Información, guaranteed his presence.
Barcala reacted promptly by forcing the resignation of the former Urban Planning councilor, Rocío Gómez; and the general director María Pérez-Hickman, although she continues to hold her position as head of contracting. In his statements, the PP mayor made an effort to appear at the forefront of the banner of indignation, reiterating in every plenary and every public statement the seriousness of the scandal and his absolute willingness to clarify what happened.
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However, that initial fiery anger has given way to cautious silence, something that also clashes within the ranks of Vox, Barcala’s usual partner, whose spokesperson, Carmen Robledillo, has gone from demanding the mayor’s resignation to skirting the issue or seeking responsibility for what happened in the management of the brief left-wing government that left power eight years ago.
It is not that the investigation commission approved in the Valencian Corts, chaired precisely by Vox deputy Ana Vega, has offered so far more than a series of mutual reproaches among the different groups in a constitutive session that barely served to postpone the vote on the work plan.
Thus, the most certain thing about the matter ends up being the reflection Manuel Villar made yesterday: nothing else can be expected but an effective judicial investigation if citizens want to truly know how and why the only Public Protection Housing development launched in Alicante in decades ended up distributing high-end apartments at half price among a handful of well-connected people.
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