MERGED: All about the Lamp post Scandal and related issues

[jdimpas]

CEBU CITY -- The Sandiganbayan is set to raffle Friday seven separate criminal cases filed against Cebu City-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 Section 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) Central Visayas director Roberto Lala, Assistant Directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo, Division Chiefs Pureza Fernandez, Cresencio Bagolor, Agustinito Hermoso, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano and Buenaventura 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 Fernando 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 Thursday.

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.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net....out.soon.html

[godsaint]

30,000 lang ang bail?Isa lang na ka computer ni Radaza.

[ngano-diay?]

Mao na ni!

Ang lamp Post e-pos pos!

[mab]

lakas mana cla ni Gloria lisdo na cla prisohon

[neox30]

okey ko ani

[rAnzter]

naah... nang higda nah ang mga lampost diha sa park mall ay....

[raul julia]

finally..

[mustrufnuthn]

30000 ra bail?? bisag one million pa, bayaran ra na nila

[rockrhyan1982]

Anti-graft official sees need to include COA findings in lampposts case review

ASSISTANT Visayas Ombudsman Virginia Santiago admitted yesterday that the plan to withdraw the case information against public officials indicted for alleged overpricing of the Asean summit lampposts came from her.

She said the decision was reached after one of her staffers read last week in the Commission on Audit (COA) website its report on the decorative lamps.

Sun.Star Cebu, however, could not find any reference to the said report when it checked the website.

Santiago admitted she has not read the report and does not yet know what the findings were, as she is still waiting to receive a copy from the COA.

She said that once they are through reading the COA report, they will decide whether to proceed or not with the plan to withdraw the filed case information.

Last Friday, a Sandiganbayan 4th Division panel of prosecutors expressed their intention to withdraw the criminal information impleading former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano in the lamppost controversy.

The panel said it wanted to do a reinvestigation based on the COA report findings.

Santiago, though, said that should the COA report show the need for a reinvestigation, they will withdraw the case information against all the accused, not just Ouano, from all Sandiganbayan divisions handling the cases.

Respondents

Facing criminal cases before the 2nd and 4th Sandiganbyan divisions are former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 director Roberto Lala; assistant directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo; division chiefs Pureza Fernandez, Augustinito Hermoso, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano and Buenaventura Pajo; and Fabmik Construction and Equipment Supply Co. Inc.'s Isabelo Braza.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, City Engineer Julito Cuizon, Assistant Engineers Fernando Tagaan and Rogelio Veloso, the DPWH officials and Braza have cases pending in the 1st and 5th divisions.

Three other cases impleading only the DPWH officials and Gerardo Surla of Gampik Construction and Development Inc. are with the 4th, 5th and 1st divisions.

Pelagio Apostol, deputy ombudsman for the Visayas, had denied having recommended the criminal information's withdrawal.

In a telephone interview, he told Sun.Star Cebu that what he approved last week was all the respondents' motion for reinvestigation.

"(But) we are not saying our evidence is not strong," he said, adding that he and the Ombudsman Visayas investigators had agreed that they would not withdraw the case information.

In a separate interview, however, Santiago said they are temporarily holding off the defendants' motion for reconsideration on both the administrative and criminal charges due to the reinvestigation plan.

Whistleblower Crisologo Saavedra does not like it, though, saying "as the original complainant, I will object to it."

He said his source from the COA allegedly told him two weeks ago of the agency's findings on the lamppost controversy.

"I can assure you that the results of the COA report and the Ombudsman's investigation are just the same. COA said the prices were bloated," he said.

He added that the COA and the Ombudsman used the same evidence in each of their investigations.

On record

Last Friday, Sandiganbayan 4th division Associate Justice Jose Hernandez proposed that the prosecution "just put the COA report on record" and proceed with the case.

Saavedra said the suggestion was "very justified" and that he was "surprised" by the prosecution's plan, which he considers a "waste of time, effort, and the people's money."

He feared withdrawing the case information will only "create suspicion and destroy the credibility of the Ombudsman-Visayas."

In an interview over radio dyRF, however, Santiago said they wanted to withdraw the information so they can include the COA report in a new preliminary investigation.

She said they are just being careful because they might be prevented from presenting the report later on if they only put it on record.

Apostol also said he trusted that 4th division lead prosecutor Cornelio Somido knows what he is doing because he is "one of the best" in the country.

"I know these prosecutors; they never allow a case to be compromised," he said.

"Maybe they want to withdraw (the information) so they can act on our motion for consolidation," Apostol told Sun.Star Cebu.

The prosecutors and investigators allegedly wanted to have all cases handled by just one Sandiganbayan division.

[godsaint]

dili man ni ma priso sila kay gamay lang man ang pyansa.