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Sunstar: Engineer ‘forced to sign’ papers for lamps


By KARLON N. RAMA, Sunstar CEBU CITY - One of the Mandaue City engineers impleaded in the Asean summit lamppost investigation of the anti-graft office is offering to spill the beans on suspended Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano. Engineer Alfredo Sanchez Sr., in a counter-affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas Friday, said he only signed the program of works and estimates (POWE) used in the multi-million-peso transaction because he was afraid of being relieved of post. The veiled threat, he said, was made by the mayor’s executive assistant and daughter-in-law Cheryl, through Acting City Engineer Hidelisa Latonio. The Ouano camp, through their publicist Jonji Gonzales, is calling everything a political propaganda. “Gipahibaw na mi daan nga gihangyo na siya sa mga Cortes (We knew beforehand that he was approached by the Cortes camp)," he said in a text message that quoted Cheryl. Jonas Cortes, made Acting Mandaue City Vice Mayor with the suspension of Ouano and subsequent the appointment of vice mayor Amadeo Seno as mayor, is running for mayor against Ouano’s son Jonkie. According to Gonzales, the Ouanos are denying the accusation but understands that Sanchez had to say what he did out of loyalty to the Cortes camp. The anti-graft office will take judicial notice of Sanchez’s offer to testify. A panel of lawyers is conducting the formal preliminary investigation and administrative adjudication on the case. If allowed, Sanchez may be given immunity from suit pursuant to the provisions of Presidential Decree 749, as amended. The decree gives protection to those who can give material testimony for cases involving violations of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act. A total of 21 individuals, 19 of them public officials and currently serving a six-month preventive suspension order, are criminally and administratively impleaded in the Asean Summit lamps investigation. Those charged include Ouano, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, Department of Public Work and Highways (DPWH) 7 Director Roberto Lala, his two assistants—Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo—and regional legal officer, Augustinito Hermoso. Likewise included are Pureza Fernandez, Cresencio Bagolor, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano and Buenaventura Pajo, all of DPWH. Impleaded as well are Latonio, Mario Gerolaga, Rosalina Denque, Gregorio Omo, and Sanchez, all of the Mandaue City Government, and Julito Cuizon, Fernando Tagaan Jr., and Rogelio Veloso, all of the Lapu-Lapu City Government. Contractors Isabelo Braza, president of Fabmik Construction and Equipment Co. Inc., together with Gerardo Surla, chairman of the Gampik Construction and Development Corp., are number 20 and 21 in the list of respondents. Based on the charges against them, investigators said there was “massive overpricing" in the purchase as well as evidence that the overpricing was the result of a “conspiracy" between the suppliers, the DPWH and local government officials. The conspiracy was “evident" from the start, said the final evaluation report that got docketed as the complaint, when the local government units of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu prepared POWEs for the purchase of those lamps and streetlights installed in their cities. “It should have been the DPWH regional office (that prepared) the program of works considering that it is a nationally funded project," the evaluation report read. Sanchez, in the counter-affidavit prepared by lawyer Julius Ceasar Entise, said the only evidence against him is his signature in the POWE that the anti-graft office believes was prepared in collusion with the contractor and the DPWH. If that is the case, he said, there is no evidence against him because he did not freely sign the document. He narrated how Ouano called him and his fellow assistant city engineers to a meeting sometime in May last year to discuss the then upcoming summit. During the meeting, he said, Ouano asked them to prepare the electrical work component of a POWE that he had intended to submit. He said Latonio, sometime in August last year, endorsed their draft POWE to the office of the mayor. The project estimates reached P45 million. But about a month after, he said, Latonio called him up and asked him to sign another POWE that was dated November 7, 2006. He refused because he didn’t know who prepared it or what it contained but Latonio, he said, asked him again and told him it was upon instruction of Ouano. The document, he was told, was even hand-carried to Latonio by the mayor’s executive secretary, Cheryl. “For fear that I might be placed on floating status, I was forced to affix my signature on the POWE," Sanchez said. “I have no participation whatsoever in choosing the specifications of the materials to be used in the project," he said. He did not know what happened to the POWE dated November 7, 2006 after he signed it. “Initially, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the POWE might not have been used for his controversial project because a few days after I affixed my signature, the installation of the decorative streetlamps commenced and the project was undertaken exclusively by the DPWH," he said. It was not the first time he was asked to sign a POWE that somebody else prepared. He narrated that in August last year, while attending a basketball tournament, Cheryl allegedly had him come up the stage and asked him for his signature. A total of P365.8 million was used to buy the allegedly overpriced lamps and streetlights for the Asean summit last January and all was charged to the P816-million Motor Vehicle Users Charge fund of the Land Transportation Office. Some 2,310 lamps and streetlights were put up in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu by two contractors—Fabmik and Gampik. Of the lamps and streetlights, the cheapest cost P85,000, including installation, and can be found in Cebu City. The most expensive cost P350,090.48 and were put up in Mandaue. - Sun.Star Cebu

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