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Cebu City, Philippines - There’s no rest for “overpriced” lampposts or the people accused of their purchase.
Ombudsman Maria Merceditas Gutierrez has ordered the filing of graft charges against Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano, 19 other government officials and two civilians involved in purchase of P365 million worth of decorative lampposts in Metro Cebu.
The Ombudsman found the China-made lights overpriced by as much as 10 times their actual cost.
The case will now go to the Sandiganbayan unless a motion for reconsideration is granted.
The case cracked open after the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in 2007, the event for which the lampposts were bought.
“The lighting facilities can be said to be excessively overpriced from the original costs thereby making each contract grossly disadvantageous to the government,” the Ombudsman said in a 30-page resolution dated April 10.
Also included in the charges for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act were nine officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas (DPWH-7), eight city engineers of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and two private contractors.
In a separate decision on the administrative aspect of the case, Gutierrez ordered the dismissal from service of the 19 DPWH officials and Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue engineers for grave misconduct.
Ouano was also found guilty of gross misconduct and ordered dismissed from the service.
But since Ouano’s term of office ended in 2007, Gutierrez ordered that “the penalty imposed upon him be deemed implemented and accordingly reflected in his record of public service.”
The two decisions were handed down almost a year since the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas conducted a formal investigation on March 23, 2007 when it found enough evidence of “collusion” among government officials, including Radaza and Ouano, to file criminal and administrative charges against them.
In separate statements, both Ouano and Radaza expressed confidence they would eventually be cleared of the charges.
“I have full trust in the judicial system. I am very confident that I will be vindicated by the Sandiganbayan,” said Ouano, now a private citizen.
“I am very moved by the support shown by my loved ones, friends and supporters. I thank my family, relatives and friends for their continued prayers,” he added.
Like Ouano, Mayor Radaza expressed confidence in the country's judicial system and that in the end, he would be vindicated.
He said he wore the T-shirt of the Kadaugan sa Mactan on Monday during the launching of the week-long festivities to show that like Lapu-Lapu, he too would win in the end.
Gutierrez ordered the filing of graft charges against Radaza and Ouano and their respective engineering staff before the Sandiganbayan.
Charged were acting city engineer Hidelisa Latonio, assistant city engineer Gregorio Omo, and engineers Mario Gerolaga, Alfredo Sanchez Sr. and Rosalina Denque, all of Mandaue; and Lapu-Lapu city engineer Julito Cuizon, assistant city engineer Fernando Tagaan Jr. and engineer Rogelio Veloso.
Also ordered charged were DPWH-7 officials - former director Robert Lala, former assistant regional director Gloria Dindin, assistant regional director Marlina Alvizo, acting maintenance division chief Pureza Fernandez, acting maintenance division assistant chief Cresencio Bagolor, legal officer Agustinito Hermoso, planning and design division chief Luis Galang, administrative division chief Restitutio Diano, and construction division chief Buenaventura Pajo.
The Ombudsman, however, dismissed the charges against Teresa Bernido, Ayaon Manggis and Marilyn Ojeda, who were members of the DPWH's Technical Working Group because their participation was limited to the post qualification of the lowest bid. They were not involved in the preparation or approval of the Programs of Work for the project.
Two businessmen who bagged the contract — Isabelo Braza, president and chair of the board of Fabmik Construction and Equipment Supply Co., and Gerardo Surla, chair of the board of Gampik Construction and Development — were also ordered included in the charge.
In a separate decision, Ombudsman Gutierrez ordered the dismissal of all the accused from government service for grave misconduct, except for Mayor Radaza.
DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane was ordered to implement the dismissal of Lala, Dindin, Alvizo, Fernandez, Bagolor, Hermoso, Galang, Diano, and Pajo.
Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes was tasked to carry out the dismissal of Latonio, Omo, Gerolaga, Sanchez and Denque.
In the case of Radaza, the mayor was spared from the administrative penalty following his reelection as mayor in 2007 in line with the Aguinaldo doctrine. But he was ordered to implement the dismissal of Cuizon, Tagaan, and Veloso.
Hermoso said he would file a motion for reconsideration.
The lawyer said he and other members of the DPWH-7 bids and awards committee had no participation in the alleged overpricing of the lampposts because they only conducted the bidding as ordered by the central office.
“We were good soldiers, so we followed the instruction of Manila to conduct the bidding,” Hermoso said.
Of the DPWH officials ordered dismissed, only Lala was no longer in Cebu. He was transferred to the National Capital Region after the scandal broke.
Gutierrez said the DPWH officials “are the ones who most obviously appear to be liable” as they “approved all the programs of work, awarded the projects to the winning contractors, and executed the corresponding contracts.”
The local officials, she said, could not be absolved even if it was true they were pressured or otherwise obliged to sign the programs of works and detailed estimates.
“As properly designated officials with the duty to protect the government at all times, they should have been discerning in affixing their signatures on the lighting facilities,” Gutierrez said.
Local media reports about the expensive lampposts had prompted a probe by the Ombudsman-Visayas into the acquisition and installation of lampposts and street lighting facilities along the streets of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities for the ASEAN summit.
Investigators found the lighting facilities “highly overpriced.” They compared the costs of the lampposts as indicated in the import documents, with the Programs of Work and Detailed Estimates prepared by Mandaue City.
They concluded that “the cost of each lamppost, apparently, was expanded to almost ten times its actual cost.”
Allowing additional costs for taxes, shipment and other charges, the lampposts would still end up costing about three times more.
“To jack up the cost this much is tantamount to undue enrichment at government expense. The contracts, therefore, are manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the government,” the resolution said.
“It can be said straightforwardly that there is overpricing,” said the Ombudsman after noting the difference between the supplier's cost and the purchase price.
While the ASEAN Summit might have provided a reason for resorting to an alternative mode of procurement, the award of the contract to Fabmik and Gambik at exorbitant rates showed “unjustifiable preference for private contractors and collusion between them and respondents public officials.”
“That the contracts ended up being awarded to private contractors despite the stupefying costs and the unconscionable expense of the government had to put up with, strongly indicate that they must have been unduly favored and given preferential treatment by public respondents. It was clearly the concerted brain-work of public and private respondents.” /with reports from Correspondents Carine Asutilla and Jhunnex Napallacan
