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Friday, July 07, 2006
Political harassment: Syjuco on DPWH equipment deal
SO WHAT if some of the trucks and heavy equipment used to be owned by the Tawo kag Duta sa Kauswagan Foundation?
This was the point raised by Tesda director general Augusto Boboy Syjuco as he denied he had a hand in the alleged rigging of a P12-million heavy equipment deal sometime in 2004 when he was still congressman of the 2nd district of Iloilo.
"The foundation has a personality separate and distinct from its members," Syjuco told the Ombudsman-Visayas in a 14-page counter-affidavit to the graft and corruption charges filed against him by Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel "Boy" Mejorada.
Syjuco said the allegations against him are mere political harassment with no factual basis, and should be dismissed.
"The only official participation of the herein respondent (Syjuco) in the purchase of the trucks and heavy equipment was by merely providing funds from his Countrywide Development Fund," Syjuco said. Syjuco is the chairman of the foundation. His wife, incumbent 2nd district Rep. Judy J. Syjuco, is the treasurer.
For his part, Mejorada described the counter-affidavit of Syjuco as a validation of the basic charges he has filed against Syjuco, which is that the official had a financial interest in the trucks and equipment that were sold to the Department of Public Works and Highways. "The issue is: did Syjuco have anything to do with the trucks and heavy equipment before DPWH purchased them?" Mejorada stressed.
The answer, as Syjuco himself provided, is "yes", Mejorada said. Mejorada said Syjuco is merely employing "squid tactics" in attributing personal and political reasons to the filing of the complaint.
"He claims that I'm being investigated for numerous anomalies but he cannot even cite a single case because there isn't one," he said.
Mejorada said the documentary evidence he has presented to the Ombudsman-Visayas to substantiate his allegations of the wrongdoing done by Syjuco and his co-respondents "cannot possibly lie." "The documents speak for themselves, and no amount of maligning me as the accuser will change the fact that Syjuco's fingerprints are found all over the crime scene," he said.
In his counter-affidavit, Syjuco tried to seek refuge in the approval given to the transaction by officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit.
"If the Commission on Audit raised no question on the propriety of the transaction in question, can Manuel P. Mejorada now has (sic) the competence to question the transaction? Can Manuel P. Mejorada be more 'popish than the pope', so to speak?" he asked.
Syjuco also pointed to the approval given by senior officials of DPWH and DBM to certain changes in the transaction as imprimatur as to its regularity.
Syjuco described the anti-graft complaint as "nothing but a harassment scheme designed to inconvenience and besmirch the reputation of (Syjuco)."
He added that just because the heavy equipment and trucks were formerly owned by his foundation, it does not necessarily follow that the purchase became tainted with irregularities.
"If the foundation sold these equipment and trucks to other business entities which eventually sold them to AZURE Builders Corporation, then there was nothing irregular as it has that prerogative to acquire and dispose of properties," he argued.
Mejorada disagreed.
These statements made by Syjuco only served to strengthen the case because there is no longer any dispute on the issue of the equipment having been owned by the foundation, Mejorada said.
"The evidence would show that ownership of the trucks was never transferred to Azure Builders Corp., one of the two winning bidders," he said.
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Angeles City reported that one of the trucks was registered to a certain Cecilio Mamungay as of its certification dated December 9, 2005.
The truck registered in the Mamungay also turned out to be previously owned by Tawo kag Duta sa Kauswagan Foundation. Iloilo LTO chief Anuel Bonite also issued a certification dated November 25, 2005 that another truck in the transaction was still registered in the name of the foundation.
"In short, there was never really a real transfer of ownership, and this only bolsters my case that the transaction was a drama, a conspiracy to benefit Syjuco," Mejorada said.
(July 7, 2006 issue)
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