Tuesday, June 05, 2007 Jeepney drivers demand minimum fare increase
THE Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo (Nadsu) is demanding an increase in the minimum fare, saying the amount should be the same as the one collected in Metro Manila.
Nadsu officials said in a press conference yesterday that the P6-minimum fare collected in Metro Cebu is small considering the high price of fuel and the five-kilometer distance covered.
In Metro Manila, they said, the P7-minimum fare is collected for the first four kilometers.
While diesel costs P35.26 per liter in Metro Cebu, it costs about P34.50 in Metro Manila, as of the weekend.
The group said that since many would oppose the increase, government should implement the proposed P125-across-the-board wage increase.
Petition
Nadsu provincial council member Eduard Geolin said oil deregulation must be stopped so that the government could regulate the prices of fuel.
He said that the group has petitioned for the standardization of fares before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board but got no reply.
At the press conference yesterday, Nadsu called for the withdrawal of an ordinance of the Lapu-Lapu City Government, which, they believe, is violating their jeepney franchises.
Ferry Sia, president of a group of drivers plying the Mepz-I route, said the travel lines imposed by a city ordinance do not match their respective franchises.
He said that his group was not able to attend the public hearing for the ordinance because they weren’t invited.
His group tried to petition the Cebu Provincial Board to review the ordinance first before approving it but to no avail.
Sia claimed the ordinance hasn’t been implemented for a while but his group still wants the ordinance to be cancelled.
Gregory Perez, another council member, also pointed out that the ordinance amends the route numbers already given to them.
It will only confuse the passengers, especially those who have been used to identifying routes basing on the route numbers. (AAG)
9.
Saavedra asks ombud to look into ‘recently discovered’ CICC expense
WEEKS after getting a fresh term, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia faces a renewed assault by businessman Crisologo Saavedra over the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
The businessman, whose exposé on the Asean summit lamppost controversy led to the preventive suspension of former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano and re-elected Lapu-Lapu Mayor Arturo Radaza, wants the anti-graft office to look into a “recently discovered P261 million CICC expenditure.”
The expense, he said, was not reflected in the April 2007 CICC financial record currently at the hands of anti-graft investigators. Saavedra said it was not also mentioned in the report that the governor gave to a “select crowd” at the Provincial Capitol last May 3.
CICC cost
He called the governor’s presentation a “deliberate attempt to deceive the Cebuanos” and a “classic example of a politician and a government official who (abused) the trust and confidence given to them by the people.”
Had it been included, he said, it would have torn to pieces the governor’s claim that the CICC only cost the government P581.273 million, P56 million cheaper than the approved budget.
In asking the anti-graft office to probe the new expenditure, he amended an existing complaint that he’d filed against the governor and nine others – Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez, Architect Manuel Guanzon, Atty. Roy Salubre of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), Provincial Planning Chief Adolfo Quiroga, Budget Officer Emmy Hingoyon, Project Engineer Ernesto Biernes, Provincial Engineer Euly Pilayre, Provincial Attorney Mariano Martinquilla and Ed Habin.
He originally filed several complaints against them—illegal variation orders done on the program of works, splitting the contracts to forgo bidding, illegal awards through negotiations, illegal procurement through selective bidding, and the overall inefficiency of the project management team.
The alleged acts, he stressed, bloated the CICC cost and resulted in damage to government.
In the amended complaint, Saavedra said he discovered the new expenditure after receiving a document that came in the form of a letter addressed to the governor and sent by the contractor, Will Te of WT Construction.
Billing statement
The letter, he said, was a billing statement asking for P85,265,407 in electrical and plumbing works and another P175,951,478 in site development, structural, civil and architectural works.
“It is worth elucidating to scrutinize the work items awarded to WT Construction, the status of payments thereof, (and) then compare the same with the Final Billing Statements dated 21 Feb. 2007 and the presented CICC construction costs by Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia done on 03 May 2007,” he wrote in his amended complaint.
He maintained that per the summary of declared CICC procurements, the third progress billing for the sub and super structure already reached P119,223,995.84 while the structural steel has already been fully paid at P200,000,000. An additional procurement was also declared at P107, 083.05, with the payment documents still being processed.
“Suffice it to say that the work items being billed by WT Construction per billing statement dated 21 Feb. 2007 addressed to Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia were clearly and palpably different and distinct from what it might collect as unpaid work items,” Saavedra said.
“The assailed transactions, the surrounding circumstances thereof and the subsequent narration of facts bespeak of an unlawful scheme or conspiracy to deprive the Cebu Provincial Government the amount of P261 million through misappropriation, conversation, misuse or malversation of public funds which falls within the purview of plunder,” he added. (KNR)
