THE filing of charges before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against former Bacolod City mayor Monico Puentevella and eight current and former city executives due to the purchase of 10 vehicles will not affect the services of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said yesterday.
Bayatan said it will not affect the use of vehicles because the complaint filed by executive assistant Samuel Montoyo was about the manner of its acquisition.
Also facing the complaint were Jerome Solinap, former chairman of Bids and Awards Committee (BAC); Victor Espina, former head BAC secretariat; Dr. Maria Agueda Trinidad dela Torre, former BAC vice-chairman; BAC members Ephraem Hechanova, Mae Cuaycong, and Maximino Sillo; Roger Dullano, former supervising administrative officer; and Aaron Bais, former special operations officer IV and DRRMO officer.
On March 27, 2018, Montoyo filed the administrative and criminal charges against Puentevella and his eight co-respondents. The vehicles were requested by the DRRMO but were used by the BCPO.
On March 4, 2016, Bais filed an obligation request for the purchase of disaster response and rescue equipment in the amount of P8.5 million. Each unit of the brand new vehicle has an estimated cost of P850,000 which was also approved by Puentevella.
Bayatan said the acquisition of 10 vehicles violated the bidding rules as it did not comply the mandatory seven-day period of publication and 12 day period of submission of the bids including the one day for the pre-bid conference.
Bayatan recalled that the previous administration failed to pay the supplier until the Leonardia administration assumed office, adding they discovered the pending accounts or obligations that were not yet paid.
"We examined the reason why it was not yet paid, and we saw that there was the violation of the bidding rules and violation in the acquisition under the DRRM Law," Bayatan said.
The patrol cars supplier had earlier filed a money claims before the Commission on Audit (COA) office and the CLO will also wait for the decision of COA if they will pay it or not.
"If COA will order the payment so we will pay it, but payment will never cure the anomaly of the acquisition and the case is still there," he said. (MAP/SunStar Bacolod)