CEBU CITY -- Warrants of arrests were served Friday on former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano and 13 others impleaded in one of five cases involving the lamppost scam though no arrests were made.

This, after all the accused were able to post the recommended P30,000 bail either before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division, which issued the warrants last October 21, and Executive Judge Marilyn Yap of the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

“When we learned that the warrant was already out, we immediately posted bail,” said lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu in an interview Friday. She posted bail for Ouano and Mandaue City engineers Hidelisa Latonio and Gregorio Omo.

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However, while a warrant of arrest was served at 2:30 p.m. against Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Central Visayas officials for their involvement in the purchase of the overpriced decorative lampposts for the 12th Asean Summit in January 2007, the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) did not receive any feedback on the serving of the warrant against Ouano as of 4 p.m. Friday.

MCPO Director Orlando Ualat confirmed they had the warrant against Ouano and received the order for his arrest at 1 p.m.

“I already directed Senior Inspector Marvin de Paz to serve the warrant for his arrest,” Ualat said, but confirmed that he has not yet received any feedback as of 4 p.m.

De Paz, who heads the MCPO Investigation and Detective Management Bureau (IDMB), sought the assistance of Special Weapons and Tactics team leader France Rudolph Oriol in serving the warrant.

But Dalawampu said Ouano was in Manila Thursday morning but came back in the afternoon after hearing that a warrant was out.

They went to Judge Yap’s sala around 3 p.m. Friday and contacted the police to ask that they come over with a copy of the warrant.

They then posted bail.

In Cebu City, members of the IDMB of the Cebu City Police Office served the arrest warrant against Marlina Alvizo, Pureza Fernandez, Cresencio Bagolor, Agustinito Hermoso, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano, Ayaon Manguis, Marlyn Ojeda and Teresa Bernido at the DPWH office.

However, they were not taken into custody after they were able to show an official receipt proving that they posted bail last October 26 and an order setting aside the warrant of arrest.

When police arrived at the DPWH office, only Fernandez, Galang and Bernido were present. They decided to be interviewed.

Chief Inspector George Ylanan, chief of the Cebu City IDMB, told Sun.Star Cebu that they asked for a copy of the order from the fourth division setting aside the warrant. They waited for an hour until an order from the fourth division was faxed to the DPWH.

The order, dated October 26, set on November 24 the arraignment of the case for violation of the Republic Act (RA) 3019 or the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act at the Office of the Division Clerk of Court in the Sandiganbayan.

The order was signed by Associate Justices Gregory Ong, Jose Hernandez and Roland Jubado.

Ylanan said they only received a copy of the warrant on Friday morning.

Former DPWH-Central Visayas director Robert Lala, Alvizo, Fernandez, Bagolor, Hermoso, Galang, Diano, Bernido, Manguis, and Ojeda posted bail at the Sandiganbayan.

It is not yet known where lamppost supplier Isabelo Braza, chairman of the Fabmik Construction Equipment Supply Co., posted his.

The case involves the respondents’ supposed hand in the preparation and the approval of a contract that ultimately led to the purchase and installation of 89 allegedly overpriced lampposts along Mandaue City’s W.O. Seno, C.D. Seno, Plaridel and J. Briones streets for P19,980,000.

According to a Commission on Audit (COA) canvass, the 89 units mentioned in the contract are only worth P13,934,547 based on the price of similar park lamps, or P8,745,567 had other comparable imported decorative lamps been used.

“The basis for the case is the COA report. But a closer look at the report will show no mention of my clients,” Dalawampu stressed.

Dalawampu said three more warrants are forthcoming for the other persons involved in three more lamppost scam-related cases, but Ouano and the Mandaue engineers are no longer involved.

“The fifth case (the second involving Ouano and the Mandaue engineers) is already with the second division of the Sandiganbayan and all the respondents have already posed bail for that,” she said.

In that case, Ouano and the other public respondents were directly responsible for awarding the various contracts for the supply of street lighting facilities, testing and commissioning of LED bulbs, traffic signal lantern and other traffic control devices along roads in Cebu to Fabmik’s Braza and Gerardo Surla of Gampik Construction and Development Inc.

The total contract price reached P164,524,401.25, which was way beyond the estimates of the COA and the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas. The agencies only pegged the value of the contract at P60 million.

The three other indictments are also for violation of RA 3019 and involve Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, his city engineer, Julito Cuizon and assistant engineers Fernando Tagaan Jr. and Rogelio Veloso.

Also involved in the other cases are the DPWH officials, Fabmik’s Braza and Gampik’s Surla.

Radaza, Cuizon, Tagaan, Veloso and Dindin were ordered charged over a contract to supply and install street lighting facilities along the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge 1 and along Punta Engaño, worth P83,935,000.

But according to graft investigators, the cost of the project should have only been P65,889,109.99.

They were charged together with the DPWH officials Lala, Alvizo, Dindin, Fernandez, Bagolor, Hermoso, Galang, Diano, Bernido, Manggis, Ojeda and contractor Braza.

Lala, Dindin, Alvizo, Fernandez, Bagolor, Hermoso, Galang, Diano, Manggis, Ojeda, Bernido and Surla are also jointly charged for another contract.

They allegedly awarded to Gampik the contract for the supply, testing and installation of traffic signal lanterns and other traffic control devices at the junction of ML Quezon Avenue-Terminal Building access road, and along the ML Quezon and Patalinjug Aves., as well as other street lighting facilities along Punta Engaño Road Network in Lapu-Lapu for P35,634,401.25.

The amount, based on the complaint against them, is in excess of the anti-graft office’s computation of P23,004,804.26.

They, together with Pajo, were also charged for awarding to Gampik another contract, this time to supply and install street lighting facilities along the Mandaue Causeway for P24,975,000.

The contract was estimated only at P17,487,862 by the anti-graft office and P16,229,434.23 by COA. (KNR/MEA/With OCP and GMD/Sun.Star Cebu)