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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Cement hunting for 5T bags on
By Christine Mae Pelayo
PENDING investigation on the alleged 200 bags of missing cement from the City Engineer's Office (CEO) warehouse, four employees of the agency will be suspended from work effective Tuesday.
Another one is due to be terminated.
Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia signed the memorandum of preventive suspension for 30 days without pay for City Engineer Loreto Dilag and his men Joel Locsin, Julio Belleza and Ruben Tad-y.
He concurred with the memorandum, which contained the findings of lawyers Ma. Gliceria Caduhada, assistant city legal officer, Vicente Petierre III, and Bartolome Malde. The three were tasked last week to probe the incident.
Further, Leonardia said, he has designated Engineer Belly Pelayo-Aguillon to act as officer-in-charge in the CEO.
The memorandum states that truck driver Mariano Navarro, a casual-plantilla employee, must be terminated effective Tuesday.
On the other hand, truck driver Renato Inion, who is not a City Government employee, was not subjected to CLO's investigation.
But the CLO said they are not constrained to determine whether there was a conspiracy between Inion and Anton Gayatin, the owner of Solid Gold Enterprises in the delivery of the cement bags in the company's warehouse.
This is aside from the fact that the Gayatin family has issued a statement saying that they are into "clean business."
Leonardia also clarified that he initiated the conduct of investigation on the missing bags of cement after a private individual gave them such information.
"I wanted to make it clear that I started it (investigation) all because some of my political enemies are manipulating the issue for their political agenda," Leonardia said.
Dilag, however, could not be reached for comment as of press time yesterday.
More cement bags missing
Lawyer Allan Zamora, city legal officer, said 5,700 more bags of cement were found missing at the CEO's warehouse after they conducted a comprehensive investigation on the alleged irregularities.
He said they discovered that some bags of cement were missing from the period of October 2000 to June 2001, under the administrations of former mayors Oscar Verdeflor and Luzviminda Valdez. It amounted to P1.1 million.
Zamora added that the 5,700 bags of cement procured from the CEO warehouse by Engineer Ephraem Hechanova were alleged to have been borrowed to be used in the construction of the Vendors Plaza and Jeepney Terminal.
Zamora claimed that there is no need to borrow bags of cement from the CEO since a budget of P11 million was alloted for the construction of the Vendors Plaza.
He also disclosed records from the CEO that the 5,700 bags of cement were not yet replenished or returned to the CEO warehouse.
"There are no more funds left for other projects such as the foot bridge because the bags were used for other projects. They should return it," said Zamora.
Another 200 bags of cement
Aside from the 200 and 5,700 missing bags of cement, another 200 bags of cement were allegedly used on a different project.
Zamora said 200 bags of cement were withdrawn from the CEO warehouse for the construction of a riprap at the Magsungay River.
He scored Councilor Elmer Sy, chairman of the committee on public works, who allegedly used the cement for the construction of the back wall of the councilor's residence.
"It should be used for the River Bank Protection Project in Purok Kabulakan, Barangay Singcang-Airport, but they were used as (for the construction of) a wall at the back of Sy's residence," Zamora said.
He added that the wall no longer protects the riverbank rather it obstructs the flow of water.
Sy, however, defended that it was a retaining wall.
"I have my own wall, Zamora should be ashamed of his claims. This is because he did not study engineering. But, I forgive him," Sy said.
He explained that the retaining wall was constructed to protect the residents near the river from frequent floodings.
(June 27, 2006 issue)
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