Acting Makati mayor Kid Peña faces graft over alleged overpriced birthday cakes

Acting Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña is facing a graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for the alleged overpriced procurement of birthday cakes for the city's senior citizens.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, former Makati vice mayor Roberto Brillante accused Peña of violating Section 3 (e) and (g) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and grave misconduct under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

Brillante said Peña, upon his assumption in office as acting Makati mayor following the suspension of Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, approved the alleged anomalous contract for the procurement of birthday cakes from his chosen supplier, Goldilocks, Inc.

The contract was for the supposed supply of 31,187 birthday cakes for the period of August 15, 2015 to December 31, 2015.

Brillante said Peña suddenly awarded the P8.6-million contract to Goldilocks despite the then-ongoing bidding process, which was already in its final stages when Peña assumed post as acting mayor.

“Soon after he assumed office as Acting Mayor, Peña, without reasonable ground stopped the then on-going bidding process for birthday cake for senior citizens of Makati, which at that time had been in its final stages,” Brillante said in his complaint.

He said the contract was overpriced by P3.036 million and was 35 percent higher than what the Makati government under suspended Binay used to pay to its former supplier.

Peña assumed office as acting Makati mayor on July 1 after the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the six-month preventive suspension of Binay while it is investigating a complaint against him in connection with the alleged overpriced construction of Makati City Hall Parking Building.

Brillante said each cake procured by the Makati government from Goldilocks costs P280.

He pointed out that while the cake from the new supplier is P26 lower from the cake previously procured by the city government, which cost P306, those from Goldilocks are twice smaller, only measuring eight inches in diameter and two inches in thickness than those from the previous supplier, which measured nine inches in diameter and four inches in thickness.

Brillante said the cakes procured “did not even conform to the specifications required under the contract.”

Complaint ‘absurd and baseless’

Meanwhile, in a press statement sent via e-mail, Peña’s spokesperson Gibo Delos Reyes dismissed Brillante's complaint as “absurd and baseless.”

“This is outright ridiculous. How can that be possible when our bidding process where Goldilocks was selected was above board and even open to the media for public scrutiny?" Delos Reyes said.

“Obviously, the case is a desperate attempt to smear the reputation of Mayor Peña as a genuine reformer in cleansing the city hall procurement process. We have observed all measures, as far as practicable, to ensure utmost transparency,” he added. —KBK/KG, GMA News