Arrest order for accused in Cebu lamppost scam readied

CEBU CITY, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan is set to raffle Friday seven separate criminal cases filed against Cebu-based officials who were earlier indicted by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for the Asean summit lamppost controversy. Following the anti-graft court’s raffling of the cases is the issuance of a warrant of arrest against all the respondents for violating Sec. 3(g) of Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Bail is set at P30,000 each for each individual count. Sources at the anti-graft office said the raffling has already been postponed three times. A motion for reconsideration has also been submitted by two of the impleaded officials. In a resolution released last month, Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez approved the filing of criminal charges against 21 people involved in the controversy, citing that there was enough probable cause to bring them to court. Officials charged Charged were former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 director Rober-to Lala, Assistant Directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo, Division Chiefs Pureza Fernandez, Cresen-cio Bagolor, Agustinito Hermoso, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano and Bue-naventura Pajo. Former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano, Mandaue City Engineer Hidelisa Latonio, Assistant Engineers Gregorio Omo, Mario Gerolaga, Aflredo Sanchez Jr. and Rosalina Denque, incumbent Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, Lapu-Lapu City Engineer Julito Cuizon and Assistant Engineers Fer-nando Tagaan and Rogelio Veloso were also charged. Also impleaded were Isabelo Braza, the president and chairman of Fabmik Construction and Equipment Supply Company Inc., and Gerardo Surla, chairman of Gampik Construction and Development Inc. But it is in the case information endorsed to the Sandiganbayan that the charges were described in particular. Overpricing DPWH officials were impleaded in all seven cases, based on the records Sun.Star Cebu obtained yesterday. The officials from Mandaue, together with Fabmik’s Braza, were impleaded in two of the seven cases while the officials from Lapu-Lapu City and Braza were impleaded in two other cases. Surla, on the other hand, was impleaded in three of the seven cases, along with the indicted DPWH officials. The first case filed against Surla and the DPWH officials is for the alleged overpricing in the supply of 360 sets of park lamps with 150-watt bulbs and 40-watt fluorescent light in ballast compartments and its installation along Juan Luna Ave. and Salinas Drive in Cebu City. The second is for the supply of another 300 sets of the same item and its installation along the Mandaue Causeway in Mandaue City. They were also charged for the supply and installation of 40 more along Punta Engaño Road Network, the Terminal Building Access Road and along Patalinjug Ave., all in Lapu-Lapu City. The transactions, which showed each unit to cost P50,000, are reflected in three separate duly signed contract identified as 06H00007, 06H00008 and 06H00048, respectively. Disadvantageous “(The) transaction was manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the Republic of the Philippines as the said (individual) cost of P50,000 exceeded the prevailing price of about P4,800 per park lamp," the information revealed. According to the anti-graft office, it was the DPWH who prepared the program of works and estimates for the transaction, done allegedly in collusion with the supplier. The fourth case impleads the same DPWH officials with Ouano, Latonio, Omo, Gerolaga, Sanchez, Denque and Braza. According to the case information submitted to the Sandiganbayan, the charge covers the supply of 78 sets of “single-arm" street lights pegged at P72,500 each, 58 sets of “double-arm" models of the same street light at P85,500 each, and four sets of “triple arm" units at P95,000 each, and installing them along the approaches to and the vicinity of the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City, along Plaridel St., W.O. Seno St., Ouano Ave. and Soriano Ave., in Mandaue City. The transaction is covered by a contract identified as 06H00021, which, the anti-graft office said, was “manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the Republic of the Philippines." According to the anti-graft office, the single arm and double arm units cost only P6,000 and P7,500, while the triple arm models cost P11,000 each. Program of works In both cases, the Mandaue City officials were impleaded because it was they who allegedly prepared the program of works and estimates for the transaction, allegedly in collusion with the supplier and the DPWH. The fifth case covers the supply and installation of 89 decorative lamps along W.O. Seno, C.D. Seno, Plaridel and J. Briones Sts. in Mandaue City, at P50,000 each. The transaction is contained in contract 06H000652. Like the ones installed in Cebu City, the anti-graft office said each unit cost no more than P4,800 each; making the transaction “grossly disadvantageous" to the government. The remaining two cases implead the DPWH officials and Braza with Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Radaza and engineers Cuizon, Tagaan and Veloso. In the first case, the respondents allegedly defrauded the government by bloating the unit cost of the 139 seven-meter single-arm and 60 nine-meter double-arm street lights it installed along the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge and along a segment of the road in Punta Engaño. The figures indicated in the program of works and estimates, which the respondent public officials allegedly prepared in connivance with the supplier, and approved in contract 06H00050, state that the unit price is P72,500 and P85,000 each respectively. However, the anti-graft office said that the units cost no more than P6,000 and P7,500 each. The second case referred to the supply and installation of 23 other single-arm and four double-arm posts along the Terminal Building Access Road and the Mactan-Angasil Road Network in Lapu-Lapu City and is contained in contract 06H00049. – Sun.Star Cebu