Mercado: 1,928 ‘parables’

Saturday, October 8, 2011

THE drunk uses lampposts for support, not for light.” That old saw resurfaces in Mayor Michael Rama’s fed-up outburst: Raze those 1,928 overpriced, now gutted, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit lampposts. Failing that, convert them into flower pots.

Would that make Cebu-–plus Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu-–the three of 136 cities that bill taxpayers P72,500 for an improvised “street” flower pot?

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In 2007, Metro Cebu hosted the 12th Asean Summit. Eagerly colluding with Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and contractors, Metro Cebu officials signed up for P365 - million worth of decorative lampposts.

But they flickered out as delegates left. “Only 41 light up now—if overdue electricity bills are paid,” we wrote on June 17, 2009. Vandals by then had ripped up 165. And scavengers peddled much of the wire in 1,722.

Today, not one of the 1,928 lamps functions, a Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) survey found. Cebu has few sidewalks, as it is. So, yank those rusting hulks, Mayor Rama said. If the court won’t permit, paint “them black and hang plants there.”

Lapu-Lapu mayor (now congressman) Arturo Radaza and his council didn’t shove lamps under bushels. Instead, they lined Lapu-Lapu City streets with 139 “single-arm” and 60 “double-arm” lights. Then mayor Thadeo Ouano festooned Mandaue City’s streets with 89 lampposts, plus 78 “single-arm” lights.

Taxpayers were bilked P72,500 for a “single-arm” post, an earlier Ombudsman-Visayas report reveals. Multiple arm posts price tags bolted to P85,000 up. In contrast, single arm lamps, installed in Naga City earlier, cost less than P15,000
Not a single local government today is willing to take custody of lightless lampposts, says Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago. Graft cases enmesh DPHW bid committee members, contractors and officials.

“These (lampposts) are court evidence,” added Palanca-Santiago. “To have the lamps removed is beyond our authority.” The cases move inch by inch. Nobody has been convicted.

Rules were “brushed aside just to achieve the illegal purpose of purchasing items at prices suppliers pegged,” Ombudsman-Visayas reported earlier. “Not one qualified Bids and Awards Committee observer was present during the entire procurement process.”

The Commission on Audit was also shut out. Signatures scrawled on program of works and estimates are “footprints of their participation in the project.”

Now, Sandiganbayan prosecutors claim: evidence against Asean lamp suppliers like Fabmik Construction & Supply Co. “is weak.” This is a 180-degree turn.

“It reeks of collusion by multiple parties,” former Central Bank governor Jose Cuisia told the Conference of Independent Business Clubs in Cebu. “How is it possible that an office that found probable cause, filed...the criminal information with Sandiganbayan would later say it has no case?”

“At any street corner, the feeling of absurdity strikes any man in the face,” Nobel laureate Albert Camus once wrote.

“Leave the lampposts alone for now,” Sun.Star opinion editor Bong Wenceslao writes.

“They remind us of the anomalous transaction-–and the failings of the country’s criminal justice system.”

Indeed, those lightless lamps make corruption visible. So, did Imelda’s 1,080 shoes, Erap’s “Jose Velarde” secret bank account, or Gloria’s “Hello Garci” tapes. Those lamps are 1,928 parables that instruct without words.

(juanlmercado@gmail.com)