CEBU City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña has raised the possibility of graft after at least 16 televisions were found submerged in floodwater.
The 55-inch LED units were stored in the basement of the Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City Division Office on Imus Ave., where the Division Health and Nutrition Clinic is also located. The area flooded after heavy rain on July 16, 2025.
The TV units are believed to be excess equipment purchased for the 2024 Palarong Pambansa, which Cebu City hosted.
Osmeña, in an interview with reporters, questioned the necessity and accountability of the purchase, citing the reported P120 million procurement for TV screens for the Palaro.
“In the case of the flooded TV, that to me is overlooked. That to me is graft. That’s bastos (rude). Why did they buy so many TV sets? They don’t know what they’re going to do with it,” he said.
Osmeña, who chairs the committee on education, said the situation may be grounds for a graft investigation.
The vice mayor said his team is gathering facts on the incident.
Osmeña called on former vice mayor Donaldo “Dondon” Hontiveros to explain the purchase of the television units. Hontiveros, former sports committee chairman, was among the officials who supervised the City’s preparations for the event.
“Why did you buy all these things that we really don’t need… P120 million for the TV screens in Palaro?” Osmeña said, directing his question to Hontiveros.
SunStar reached out to Hontiveros for comment, but to no avail.
On Monday, July 28, City Hall staff will check the TV units again to confirm if they still function.
Osmeña, alongside City Councilor Harold Go and former city councilor Joy Augustus Young, inspected the damaged TVs on Friday, July 25. Young accompanied the two officials in a personal capacity.
When asked if the issue would be brought to the City Council for investigation, Osmeña did not directly state his answer. However, he said his priority is the public interest and expressed doubts about the city legal officer and city administrator’s experience. However, he emphasized that he and Mayor Nestor Archival remain a team.
Young said the TVs were first stored at a flood-prone warehouse of the Local School Board (LSB) in Barangay Labangon. Because of limited space, the units were later moved by the LSB to an even more flood-prone area.
When the July 16 flood hit, the TVs were submerged. Staff later moved the units to the third floor to dry, hoping they could be salvaged.
The TVs were supposed to be distributed to public schools as educational equipment. They were used as supplementary display monitors during the Palaro.
Young said the flooding was not anticipated, even though the area is known to be flood-prone. Both Osmeña and Young did not provide an estimate of the value of each TV or the total damage.
Osmeña proposed sealing gaps in the school division building to prevent future flooding, and suggested building a dike and installing a pump system.
“We will dike everything around here, raise the wall, make it waterproof and then pump the water,” he said.
The incident was linked to a lack of suitable storage space. Young said the TVs were still considered brand new, since they were not used for the Palaro. / EHP