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Wednesday, March 01, 2006
CA upholds ruling v. engineer
The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered a government engineer to pay a construction company P25,000 in damages for facilitating the firm’s disqualification in a bidding for a government project.
The CA ruling upheld a previous Regional Trial Court (RTC) decision finding engineer Monica Rabaya liable and awarding damages to Bacay Construction Co. Inc.
The CA, through Associate Justices Arsenio Magpale, Conrado Vasquez Jr. and Bienvenido Reyes of the Eighth Division, however reduced by half RTC Judge Olegario Sarmiento’s award of P70,000 and spared Rabaya from having to shoulder the construction company’s cost of suit.
‘Poor performance’
Rabaya, as chairman of the pre-qualification bids and awards committee of the Department of Public Works and Highways’ First Engineering District, reportedly disallowed Bacay Construction from joining a 1993 government bidding, citing “poor performance of a previous project in the concreting of the Kangwayan Road, Madridejos, Cebu” in 1992.
Bacay Construction protested the disqualification and, after failing to get a reversal, went to court through a civil suit.
“The allegations of “poor performance...” is false and fabricated, the truth being that the said project had been 100 percent completed by Bacay Construction strictly in accordance with the plans and specifications and within the time frame stipulated in the contract,” the firm said.
In its complaint, Bacay Construction said the disqualification caused them P200,000 in “actual and consequential damage,” P100,000 in “loss or impairment of its business goodwill.”
This does not include the P35,000 litigation cost.
Rabaya denied the charges in the subsequent trial and denied that Bacay Construction “is a reputable construction company.”
She narrated that the Commission on Audit (COA) once found defects in two government projects implemented by Bacay Construction—the concreting of the Pook-Tourist Barangay Road of Sta. Fe town and the Kangwayan Barangay Road in Madridejos town.
She maintained that it wasn’t she who disqualified Bacay Construction but the committee.
Bacay Construction acknowledged the defects but said it immediately instituted corrective measures when informed.
The lapse, they reasoned, was limited to their failure to take beam samples during the concreting operation.
The trial court, “by preponderance of evidence,” ruled in favor of Bacay Construction, prompting Rabaya to appeal with the CA. Rabaya argued that she, in good faith, was merely doing her job as a public servant.
Not personal
Also, she reiterated that the disqualification was not a personal act but that of the committee.
“Based on records, although the aforementioned projects of... Bacay Construction were initially defective, the latter evidently corrected such defects enabling it to collect its retention fees,” the CA decision on appeal read.
Also, the appellate court noted, it was Rabaya who wrote the “disqualification letter” to the district engineer, who then, “being persuaded by insidious machination, signed the same.” (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 1, 2006 issue)
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