Friday, May 16, 2008
Radaza wants to air side by oral argument
WITH a hearing before the Sandiganbayan just around the bend, incumbent Lapu-Lapu Mayor Arturo Radaza is looking forward to oral arguments.
Richard Sison, the mayor’s lawyer, said this would give them the chance to “clearly show” that the mayor is innocent of all charges.
“The mayor had no participation at all, other than the ministerial duty of signing the documents that had been prepared by the agency that undertook the purchase. And that is the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways),” Sison said.
Businessman Cris Saavedra, one of the complainants in the case, says he now believes Radaza spoke the truth, at least about the purchase of the street lights.
In a separate interview, Saavedra said former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano already admitted in an affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman that his office prepared the program of works and estimates for the street lights, albeit saying that it was only to secure a funding source.
Adopt
If so, Saavedra says, then there would have been no need for Radaza to make his own.
“Based on the procedure, he would have been asked to merely adopt the approved program of works,” Saavedra said.
Saavedra pointed out that the two cases Radaza is facing before the Sandiganbayan involved the supply and installation of single-arm and double-arm street lights.
He, unlike Ouano, was not included in the charge for transactions involving decorative park lamps.
And since Ouano already made a qualified admission that his office prepared the program of works for the street lights, then Radaza could no longer be faulted for it.
“The DPWH will not have two mayors prepare different program of works and estimates for the purchase of the same item in the same project. One will be asked to adopt the estimates of the other,” he said.
Enough proof
Radaza had raised the issue in the May 2007 counter-affidavit he submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas during the investigation that preceded the filing of the Sandiganbayan cases.
“The project in Lapu-Lapu City is phase II and therefore subservient and complimentary to phase 1 (Mandaue City),” he said.
“This alone is enough proof that I had no right to choose, much less refuse the project at my level,” he had said.
“My participation was limited only to noting the signatures of my engineers who signed the prepared (program of works and estimates). Not even the sampling and canvassing of the materials was my concern and neither was this the concern of my engineers. Although there are figures quoted in the (program of works)... they are not controlling since this is subject to the mandatory bidding requirements,” he said.
The lamppost issue involves the alleged overpriced purchase and installation of decorative lamps on the streets of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City as part of the preparation for the 12th Asean Summit early last year.
Costs
Lamppost models that cost only P7,536.96; P8,121.20' P9,523.37; P6,737.79; and P11,750.00, according to import documents from China, were reflected as being worth P72,500; P85,500; P95,000 and P50,000 respectively in the program of works and estimates that were prepared by the DPWH together with the Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City Governments.
In filing the case, Tanodbayan Gutierrez approved the recommendations of Graft Investigators Jane Aguilar, Sarah Jo Vergara and Gaudioso Melendez of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
The panel, created by then acting Visayas Ombudsman Virginia San-tiago, found “substantial evidence” to prove that the officials “caused the acquisition of the lampposts and other street lighting facilities” and that “the lighting facilities can be said to be excessively overpriced from their original costs.”
“It can be said straightforwardly that there is overpricing,” Gutierrez said, adding that “to jack up the cost this much is tantamount to undue enrichment at government expense. The contracts therefore are manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the government.” (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 16, 2008 issue)
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