"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." This famous quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, can be perfectly applied ...
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time". This famous quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, can be perfectly applied to the great lie of the illegal licenses granted in Lanzarote. And it is that after a lot, too much time of false speeches, the ball has become so big that it is impossible to stop it.
The execution of the sentences has highlighted what was actually evident, despite the fact that some have tried too hard to hide it. And although they now insist on tangling the speeches, the facts are much simpler. In fact, even the opinions that the current government group of the Cabildo is commissioning, although their objective is another, end up unmasking that lie.
The latest report, prepared by the island director of Territorial Planning of the Cabildo, draws the authentic chaos created by the Yaiza City Council. In fact, to justify that the Cabildo cannot issue the compatibility reports with the PIOT that the courts have demanded, the opinion alleges that there are partial plans that are not adapted to the island planning, that their regulations were not even published (or were published with defects) and, above all, that they do not have reliable plans of what has been done. Come on, more or less, that it was Tócame Roque's house, where some did what they wanted for years (that's what the issuance of "merely illustrative" and "without legal knowledge" reports has, as two technicians from Yaiza claimed during the trial for which they have just been convicted of malfeasance).
Now, based on that chaos, the Cabildo maintains that they are unable to say whether what has been built, and which has already been declared illegal by the courts, complies or not with the Island Plan and even with the General Plan of Yaiza.
Something that, however, sounds quite unbelievable. Especially considering that Pedro San Ginés has been in the Presidency of the Cabildo for two years and, during this time, he has been more occupied in removing technicians from issuing reports; in seeking opinions to question the line defended so far by the Cabildo and in holding meetings on several sides on this issue, of which they did not give an account; than in determining what are the breaches of each of the hotels. A job that was already done from the institution at the time, and that now the government group seems to ignore.
In any case, their own steps undermine the discourse they have maintained for years. San Ginés can send all the reports, press releases, clarifications and rectifications he wants. He can even come out to deny, as he has done this week, even the president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. But the facts are what they are.
In order to execute the sentences, and determine if the hotels can be legalized, the court needs, among other things, the famous compatibility report with the PIOT. That is, that the Cabildo tells you if they comply or not with the island planning in force. And to answer that "simple" question, the Corporation has been going around for months with reports and counter-reports. Didn't the hotels only lack a "little paper"? Were there only formal flaws in the granting of licenses? Obviously, it's not going to be that way.
When the execution phase of the sentences began, some of the most affected businessmen did everything possible to challenge two technicians from the Cabildo. In fact, one even got Pedro San Ginés to remove Leopoldo Díaz and Esteban Armas from issuing one of those compatibility reports. But it was useless. The reality was still what it was.
The next step was to request a report from the secretary of the Cabildo, Francisco Perdomo, who assured that the procedure that had been followed up to that moment (during all the years in which he has been in the Corporation) was not valid and that the "competent body" to validate the compatibility reports must be the Governing Council of the Cabildo. That is, the politicians.
The last step has been to issue this new opinion, signed by one of the directors placed by Pedro San Ginés in the Cabildo, in which it is argued that these reports cannot be made. Well, as San Ginés later clarified, they will be made, but "what the scope of the same will be is different". And in view of the opinion, which maintains that "there is no applicable legality criterion that allows the corresponding compatibility reports to be issued", and that these "could incur in arbitrariness", it is evident what "scope" they intend to give them.
Another famous phrase, in this case by Stendhal: "The unclear man cannot delude himself: either he deceives himself, or he tries to deceive others".
In any case, that last report issued by the Cabildo leaves another meridian reality on the table. When citing a ruling of the Supreme Court, it recalls that licenses are not a grace granted by a City Council, but a mere accreditation of a "pre-existing right". That is, to put in writing that, effectively, the owner of a plot of land has the right to build there, and how much. However, the reality is that there were many businessmen who received what they were not entitled to.
Now, if the Cabildo is going to continue splashing around to not recognize that, while processing a new Island Plan and a new General Plan of Yaiza, or some transitional rules that change the rules of the game, an injustice will be committed again with society. And it is that if the hotels are going to have to be legalized (that is what large-scale scandals have, that they even force society to look for solutions), at least it should be recognizing the injustice and compensating the island for it. But not insulting the intelligence of all the people of Lanzarote.
On October 4, 2009, after being arrested within the criminal case that investigates the existence of an alleged plot for the granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca, the former mayor of Yaiza left another great phrase: "Nobody gives anything in exchange for nothing". And to that, another famous quote from history could be added: "The first time you fool me, it will be your fault; the second time, the fault will be mine".
