Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Tinnex won't file case vs Emano By Cong Corrales and Danilo V. Adorador III
WHILE saying he would sue the contractor of the botched rural telephone project, Mayor Constantino Jaraula said he will not drag to courts names of previous officials responsible for it.
Although they may be liable of administrative offenses, Mayor Jaraula said officials of the previous Emano administration had nothing to do with the "non-implementation" of the P50 million project.
Why the Telepono sa Barangay System remains useless after nearly five years in existence was all the fault of Supplier Contractor and Networking Telecommunications (Scantel)-the contractor-Mayor Jaraula told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
"If you sue the previous officials responsible for the project, binuang kana (that's foolishness). What we are after here is for this project to finally take off so that our rural folks can finally take advantage of the telephone system," the mayor said.
He added: "They (officials in the previous administration) may have to answer administratively, but that's not within our bounds. I am more interested why Scantel failed to do as it was mandated to do in the signed contract."
Former Mayor Vicente Emano-now a vice mayor and Jaraula's partymate in the administration coalition-signed the controversial telephone project in 2003. He has denied involvement in the bungled project, saying he would support the filing of charges against Scantel.
Meanwhile, Jaraula said he wants Scantel to pay for the "value lost during the duration of the project's inactivity"- indicating that City Hall may file damages claims.
"The city was deprived of services because of this delay. It is imperative that the city gets back what it deserves by making the contractor pay for the value lost-the computation of which should be based on a year to year basis," he said.
Although the mayor had been threatening to bring Scantel to courts since summer, no charges have been filed against the Manila-based contractor so far.
However, Jaraula explained that the delay was due to the absence of City Assistant Legal Officer Mart Maandig, who was tasked to review the Scantel case. Jaraula has recently suspended Atty. Maandig for 25-day in connection with a legal opinion that runs counter with City Hall's stand.
Despite the looming case, the mayor nevertheless pointed out that out of the 17 telephone lines of the Telepono sa Barangay System project, 13 are now operational. He added that this figure had yet to be verified by his office.
The four other recipient hinterland villages-Barangays Tignapoloan, Besigan, Pagalungan and Tagpangi-may be dropped from the project list owing to the distance of their barangays from the network hub.
Scantel president Francisco Villapando had admitted in earlier reports that technical defects marred the project, adding that it failed partly because no study was made before it was undertaken.
He also blamed his former employee who he said had mismanaged the project.
State auditors have found several anomalies on the project, among which is the green light given to the project despite the non-completion of technical requirements by the contractor.
