Sunday, December 16, 2007 Senate inquiry sought on CICC
AFTER scoring in his graft complaint on the P83-million purchase of surveillance cameras, businessman Crisologo Saavedra is aiming his guns at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) once more.
Saavedra recently sent Senate President Manuel Villar a letter asking him to sponsor a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation on what he said was “overpricing in the construction and disbursement of funds” for the CICC.
He reiterated allegations already brought before the anti-graft office in a separate complaint, such as how the alleged anomalies involved “misappropriation, misuse or malversation of public funds” through “a pattern of overt and criminal splitting of contracts and purchase orders through (a) negotiated selective bidding process.”
“For Cebuanos, the issue of corruption in the government is the No. 1 issue to be discussed during this coming election,” he said in the letter to Villar dated Dec. 12.
Basis
“If a presidential candidate wants to win in Cebu, he or she must have these anomalous transactions investigated and send (those) government officials involved to jail,” Saavedra said.
Early this month, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas found basis to upgrade the complaint he filed against the Department of Public Works and Highways for giving to another communications firm the security camera contract he won in a bidding.
Villar has made it known that he will be running for President in 2010 under the Nacionalista Party banner.
His likely rival is Sen. Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party, whose camp is said to be considering Governor Garcia or Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña as his running mate.
But as far as the Capitol is concerned, Saavedra can exhaust all means just to try to bring the governor down.
“He can go to the Blue Ribbon Committee or the Red Ribbon bakeshop... that’s what he wants and that’s his prerogative,” said lawyer Rory Jon Sepulveda, Capitol consultant on information, in a phone interview yesterday.
expense
Sepulveda noted that Saavedra has already filed complaints before the anti-graft office and even asked the Commission on Audit to investigate the CICC expenses.
In a report last May 3, Governor Garcia said the CICC, which was constructed in the Mandaue City reclamation area as the main venue of the Asean summit last January, cost the Province P581.27 million.
The amount, she had said, was less than the P637-million total allocation for the project.
Saavedra, in his amended complaint with the anti-graft office last June, said that expenditures amounting to P261 million were not included in the governor’s report.
He cited a billing statement asking for P85,265, 407 in electrical and plumbing works and P175,951,478 in site development, structural, civil and architectural works.
Sepulveda, though, believes Saavedra just needs attention.
“We don’t need to be a degree holder in psychology to know what he is up to. Kuwang siya sa pansin (He craves attention). Wala na man guy ni-pansin ana niya, but he will be quite busy later on,” Sepulveda said.
Brief
He said he is preparing the motion for reconsideration on the P10-million libel complaint the governor filed against Saavedra, dismissed at the level of the City Prosecutor’s Office last month.
In his letter to Villar, the businessman attached a brief that tackled each of the allegations, such as that the CICC is a single structure but its bidding was carried out in six to eight subcontracts to “get away with the normal bidding procedure required in all government projects.”
“It is understandable to bid separately some of the specialty works such as elevators, transformers/generators, fire protection, air conditioning system... However, the rest of the other works should be a necessary component of a single project and therefore could not be split,” he said.
He also discussed allegations of illegal award through negotiations and illegal procurement through selective bidding. (KNR/JGA)
