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No handcuffs for these public figures.
Police yesterday served arrest warrants on former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano, two city engineers and nine public works officials who are facing graft charges for the purchase of decorative lampposts used during the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in 2007.
All posted bail of P30,000 each for their temporary liberty.
Cued by their lawyer, they showed up in court to pay bail and avoid the indignity of being chased by the police.
They all have to appear for arraiignment before the Sandiganbayan on Nov. 24.
This was second time that Ouano and the 12 officials were served arrest warrants by the Sandiganbayan over the lamppost case.
The anti-graft court found the case weak and returned the case to the Cebu office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to be strengthened.
The Ombudsman-Visayas refiled the case in May. Six months after, the Sandiganbayan issued the arrest warrant against Ouano, Mandaue engineer Hidelisa Latonio, assistant city engineer Gregorio Omo and nine officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Associate Justice Gregory Ong of the Sandiganbayan's fourth division ordered the arrest of the 13 respondents for violating section three, paragraph g of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) which prohibits any public officer from ?entering on behalf of the government into any contract or transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the same, whether or not the public officer profited or will profit thereby.?
Among the nine DPWH officials were Regional Director Robert Lala, and assistant directors Gloria Dindin, Marlino Alvizo, Pureza Fernandez and Cresencio Bagolor.
Also included were bids and awards committee (BAC) members Luis Galang, Agustinito Hermoso, Restituto Diano and Buenaventura Pajo, and DPWH technical working group members Ayaon Mangiis and Marilyn Ojeda.
The recent arrest order, however, did not surprise the respondents.
Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, legal counsel for Ouano and Mandaue engineers, said she and her clients were expecting the arrest warrants as the next logical step after the Ombudsman Visayas refiled a case.
She said she stayed in touch with the Mandaue City Police Office to check when the arrest warrants would be served.
Upon learning that Mandaue police were about to serve the arrest warrants against her clients, Dalawampu said she asked that they be made to appear before Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Yap of Mandaue City to post bail.
?We knew about the arrest. My clients voluntarily surrendered. We were ready for the implementation of the arrest warrants which never happened because we went to court before the arrest was made,? Dalawampu told Cebu Daily News.
The nine DPWH-7 officials posted bail before the Sandiganbayan last Oct. 26.
Chief Insp. George Ylanan, Cebu City Police Office head of the Intelligence and Detective and Management Board, said they went to the DPWH-7 office and were shown by the respondents copy of their release orders which were sent through a fax from the DPWH Central Office in Manila to DPWH-7 office.
Arrest warrants are issued by the court to acquire jurisdiction over an accused who remains at large.
Lala was the first respondent to post bail.
Dalawampu said her clients were disgusted by the results of the reinvestigation by the Ombudsman Visayas.
?My clients feel harassed. They were charged anew for the same case. My clients had to undergo another round of humiliation,? Dalawampu said.
The Ombudsman Visayas originally filed five cases against two contractors and several local officials with the different divisions of the Sandiganbayan in connection with the 1,800 allegedly overpriced lampposts installed in Mandaue, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu cities for the 12th ASEAN Summit in 2007.
The respondents were arrested in 2007 after the Ombudsman-Visayas filed graft charges against them in court.
Ouano and the other respondents were released after posting bail. After they were arraigned in court, the graft court remanded four of the five cases for ?strengthening.?
In May 2009, the Ombudsman Visayas refiled the four cases back to the Sandiganbayan and included as evidence the Commission on Audit (COA) report on the purchase and installation of the P365-million worth of lampposts.
Of the four re-filed cases, Ouano would only appear in one case.
Ouano, however, was charged with another graft case pending before the Sandiganbayan second division.
The respondents in the fourth division were charged for contract 06H00052 which covered the supply and installation of 89 lampposts worth P50,000 along some streets of Mandaue City.
Dalawampu criticized the Ombudsman-Visayas for withdrawing the cases for reinvestigation.
?The Ombudsman should have strengthened the cases without withdrawing the cases. It would not have been necessary as they can present additional evidence during trial,? she said.
The lawyer said the P30,000 paid by her clients for the bail bond when they were arrested on 2007 was a waste of money.
Dalawampu said the respondents had to spend to go to the Sandiganbayan in Manila for their rearraignment.
?This is an old case. We welcome the case. Once and for all, the issue will be laid to rest. This is a defensible case. We have to thresh out everything in court. The accusations should not be hanging over the head of these public officials,? she said.
The lawyer said the court procedure would give her clients the chance to answer the allegations against them.
?Let the prosecution show their evidence and we will defend it. We are very confident that we have strong grounds (to counter the allegations),? she said.
Dalawampu said she could not understand why the cases were remanded to the Ombudsman for the COA report because it did not mention the names of her clients and the respondents.
Dalawampu said her clients were among those who made the Program of Works and Estimates (POWE) for the lampposts which was necessary before any government project would be conducted.
She said the DPWH-7 officials sought the assistance of the Mandaue City government in making the POWE because Ouano wanted to adopt the installation of lampposts as a local project that would be funded by the national government.
But Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol said the Visayas Ombdusman could not choose who to prosecute.
He said the agency can investigate high-ranking government officials but it is the Ombudsman's central office in Manila that prosecutes high-ranking officials.
Hermoso, one of the respondents, said they did not pay for another P30,000 for their temporary liberty.
He said they merely filed a motion to the Sandiganbayan that they be allowed to use the P30,000 they paid as bail bond in 2007.
The court granted their request. with Correspondent Chito O. Aragon
