Thursday, March 08, 2007 DPWH chief orders probe on lamps buy; Mandaue says it set cost at only P50T
DEPARTMENT of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan said he cannot yet order the suspension of Regional Director Robert Lala and Assistant Director Marlina Alvizo in connection with the alleged overpriced decorative lampposts because he has yet to see the result of the investigation.
Lala, Alvizo, contractors Fabmik Construction and Equipment Corp. and Gambik Construction and Development Corp., and Mandaue City officials are being investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
The Mandaue City Government insisted, though, that its original estimate of the streetlamps used to decorate the ceremonial routes for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit was only P50,000 each and not P224,000.
In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Acting City Engineer Hidelisa Latonio and City Administrator Serafin Blanco said City Hall only submitted a program of works and estimate (POWE) to the DPWH.
They said they don’t know where the P224,000 figure came from.
Latonio said her office received a call from the DPWH requesting assistance as it was running out of time.
She said the estimates were drawn through canvassing that was mostly done through telephone calls to suppliers.
Without giving a copy of the POWE, city officials said the cost estimate stated in the POWE for the lamps was P50,000 per unit.
There are 31 lamps along Plaridel St., 36 along W.O. Seno and C. D. Seno Sts. and 64 along United Nations Ave.
With the 131 lamps at P50,000 each, the total estimate is some P6.55 million.
Latonio, however, said the estimate for the lamps does not include labor costs.
During the conference at the anti-graft office last Monday, Alvizo said the figures she presented came from the Mandaue City Government, through the city engineer and the mayor.
Each of the 124 lampposts, she said, cost P224,000 each, although the Mandaue officials only counted 131 streetlamps.
The lampposts were more expensive than the ones in the cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu, which are characterized by their hat-like apex that, at P85,000 each, were described as “grossly overpriced.”
The two suppliers of the lampposts are based in Metro Manila and are reportedly the favorite contractors of the DPWH, said businessman Crisologo Saavedra of Cebesos/Pelican joint venture.
“I can sit down with the media to explain how DPWH, LGUs and unscrupulous firms make deals,” Saavedra said.
He has said he could buy the same lampposts from a supplier in China for only P11,000.
DPWH 7 Director Robert Lala did not answer calls to his mobile phone.
DPWH 7 Legal Officer Agustinito Hermoso said he cannot give details on the lampposts transactions because he has no documents on hand during the interview. He was on leave because of illness.
Hermoso, however, said that the lampposts purchase was bid out in Cebu.
DPWH 7 Bonoan, who is coming to Cebu today to attend the Philippine Development Forum, said he will conduct his own investigation on the controversy.
He said in a radio dyLA interview yesterday that the lampposts were bought during the time of his predecessor, Hermogenes Ebdane.
Bonoan became DPWH secretary after Ebdane was named secretary of the Department of National Defense.
Mandaue City Administrator Blanco, for his part, said regardless of whether City Hall prepared the estimates or not, DPWH still had the final say on the purchase.
They gave reporters a portion of the POWE that bears the signatures of city and DPWH officials.
Assistant city engineer Gregorio Omo prepared the document, which Latonio submitted.
Lala approved it while Mayor Thadeo Ouano noted it.
City Councilor Carlo Pontico Fortuna, who was also at the press conference yesterday afternoon, said that DPWH should answer the questions related to the issue.
Fortuna said that they choose not to show the POWE, which they consider is a vital document in their case.
He fears that it might fall into the wrong hands.
In a separate interview, Mayor Ouano expressed his disappointment at the insinuations of corruption.
He said he will let Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña conduct the investigation himself.
“Kung ma proven gani, sugot ko ipakuha ang tanan lamppost pero kung dili gani, ipakuha ang usa, ibunal sa iyang ulo,” Ouano said.
It is not the first time for the Mandaue City Government to be involved in the purchase of overpriced lampposts.
Even with threats of a libel suit and getting hit with a lamppost on the head, Osmeña will not stop accusing Ouano of being involved in the streetlamps controversy.
“It’s clear there were anomalies because the bidding went beyond the 20 percent estimate cost. That’s overpricing. Let him answer to the people,” Osmeña said in a dyLA interview.
The mayor said even those lamps installed in Cebu City are overpriced at P90,000, more so those that were installed in Mandaue.
“Well, I’m just saying my suspicions. Let him file a case, no problem. Basin daghan siyang kwarta ibayad sa lawyers kay dako tingali siyag kita,” Osmeña continued.
As for Ouano’s threat to hit him with a lamppost on the head if the allegations of overpricing are found untrue, the mayor said:
“Let him try. I know what to do also. I know how to defend myself.” (EOB/AAG/KNR/LCR)
