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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Plunder rap v. Cebu governor
CEBU CITY -- A plunder complaint was filed against Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia and nine others for the alleged misspending of government funds in the multi-million-peso Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) project.
In a letter-complaint to the anti-graft office, businessman Crisologo Saavedra impleaded Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez, architect Manuel Guanzon, Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre, engineer Adolfo Quiroga, Budget Officer Emmy Hingoyon, project engineer Ernesto Biernes and Provincial Engineer Euly Pelayre, Provincial Attorney Mariano Martinquilla and Eduardo Habin.
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
All impleaded, except the governor, Sanchez and Guanzon, composed the bids and awards committee (BAC) that handled the bidding phase of the project.
The CICC had an original budget of P248,759.160 plus a supplemental allocation of P200 million more. But the expenses could reach more than that, as the Capitol allocated P515 million for it.
Garcia earlier announced that she will make a presentation on the CICC’s expenses on Thursday.
"The complainant is convinced that the Cebu Provincial Government funds of not less than P50 million were misappropriated, misused or malversed through a pattern of overt or criminal acts indicative of overall unlawful scheme of conspiracy among the Capitol officials and the contractors," Saavedra said.
Saavedra reiterated an earlier prayer to have the governor and the other officials placed under preventive suspension and for a freeze-payment order on all collectibles. Plunder, defined in Republic Act (RA) 7080, is committed when the amount of government funds lost reaches P50 million.
The penalty of plunder is life imprisonment with perpetual absolute disqualification from holding any public office.
As this developed, Garcia filed Monday a criminal and administrative complaint against Acting Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Santiago.
Garcia earlier announced her intent to file the complaint, which also called for Santiago's inhibition on an existing anti-graft fact-finding investigation on the CICC.
She said Santiago allowed herself to be interviewed last April 27 and gave information that, based on the anti-graft law, should have been confidential. She also accused Santiago of manifest partiality and bias, saying the latter is hot on her heels over the CICC probe but has sat on several cases involving rivals of the Garcia camp.
Reference was made, among others, to the incident involving Representative Clavel Martinez and her alleged act of putting P26 million funds from the Girl Scouts of the Philippines into her personal account; and P5 million in overpriced liquid fertilizer from Kasosyo Foundation whose incorporators are Representative Antonio Yapha's driver and secretary.
Yapha is challenging Garcia in the May 14 elections, while Martinez is running for vice governor against Sanchez.
The Garcias even accused Santiago of using the CICC investigation as a booster of sorts to obtain a regular appointment as deputy ombudsman. Santiago declined to comment when sought but colleagues in the anti-graft office, among them Ombudsman Director Edgardo Canton, called the allegations unfair.
"All of those investigations have been endorsed to Manila during the term of tanodbayan Simeon Marcelo. How long ago has he been out of the office?" Canton said.
Staff members, for their part, said cause-oriented groups and religious organizations are petitioning for Santiago's appointment as deputy ombudsman, and no political backing has been solicited.
The same staff members were present when Santiago was interviewed last April 27.
The anti-graft official had even discouraged CICC investigation-related leaks to the media by Saavedra.
"Dili na ko mu comment ana kay mangasuko na pud na sila. They addressed it to Ma'am (Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez), so the issue is hers to decide," Santiago said. (I will not comment, least they get angry again.)
Saavedra, when asked to comment about the Garcia complaint, was disbelieving.
"They cannot do that. That is harassment. There is a rally scheduled (today) this will be taken up," he said.
Saavedra was at the receiving section of the anti-graft office late Monday afternoon to file his plunder complaint. His main allegations is still that the Capitol split the contracts and the purchase orders relative to the construction of the CICC, by going into negotiated procurement and selective bidding.
The ploy, he said, made the project more expensive.
The project, according to Saavedra, was problematic the day the first component--the substructure--was bidded out. "The foundation that was bidded out is (for) a mat foundation... that was implemented is a pile foundation," he said.
In the complaint, Saavedra explained how the approved budget of the contract (ABC), which the Capitol bids and awards committee used as reference, specified bids for a mat foundation.
As a result, he said, the interested bidders submitted bids based on computations specific to the nature of the work. Thus, when all other bids got rejected and WT Construction came up with the estimate for a pile foundation job, his offer could not be considered the lowest possible.
Saavedra said that had the bidding been for a pile job, the computations the bidders made would have resulted in a different range of costs. It would have also attracted other contractors who specialized in pile work and who know how to get it done cheaper. And when the foundation was done, he said the Capitol illegally went into negotiated contract with the same contractor for the superstructure.
"RA 9184 (the government procurement act) is very specific on the conditions to be met to qualify a project for a negotiated contract," Saavedra said.
Two conditions he cited--that the costs of the new contract not exceed the value of the first one and that the items of work in the new contract are related to the work done in the first.
He said in the Capitol purposely went around the rule by only awarding to WT a portion of the superstructure-work, worth around P59 million, and separating the cost for the supply and installation of the structural steel for the main building structure.
He also reiterated his allegations on the illegal procurement the Capitol authorized for the CICC construction through selective bidding. One of the contractors involved turned out to be the husband of the governor's niece.
The governor has confirmed the relations and the procurement but clarified that her cousin, Karen Fiel-Tio, is related only in the fourth civil degree and, therefore, exempt from the prohibition imposed by the procurement law.
Saavedra, however, said the implementing rules and regulations of the procurement act places the children of the brothers and sisters of either parents of the procuring authority as related within the third civil degree. (KNR & MBG of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (May 1, 2007 issue)
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