ASEAN lamppost case Ombuds eyes suspension of respondents anew

CEBU, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman Visayas is eyeing the preventive suspension of all the public respondents in the graft charges that it re-filed recently before the Sandiganbayan over the allegedly overpriced decorative lampposts bought during the 12th ASEAN Summit in 2007.

Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol said he will send prosecutors to Manila to assist the Office of the Special Prosecutor in prosecuting the cases.

Apostol said he will also move for the suspension of the public respondents as soon as they are already arraigned. Suspension of public officials facing graft charges before the Sandiganbayan is mandatory but not automatic under Section 13 of the Republic Act 3019 otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

According to Apostol, they will file a motion for the suspension of the public respondents based on the rules. If this will materialize, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza may no longer escape suspension.

He was earlier spared from the suspension that the anti-graft office imposed against all the public respondents on the administrative aspect of the case because of the Aguinaldo Doctrine that extinguishes administrative liabilities of elected officials if they are reelected.

Radaza was reelected in May 2007, thereby sparing him from administrative sanction.

On the other hand, the lawyer of former Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano yesterday questioned the Ombudsman’s basis and timing for the refilling the graft cases.

Lawyer Dennis Añover accused Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez of using Ouano as a “collateral damage” amidst her impeachment case now pending before the House of Representatives to impress upon the members of the justice committee that she is not sitting on the cases pending before her office.

Though Añover admitted not having received a copy of the resolution of the ombudsman’s reinvestigation, he questioned the legal basis in re-filing it. According to Añover, it was the anti-graft prosecutors themselves who moved for the withdrawal of these cases because they admitted having no evidence against all of the accused.

The Ombudsman-Visayas upheld its earlier findings of probable cause in the four graft cases against Ouano, Radaza, then Department of Public Works and Highways-7 director Roberto Lala and assistant directors Gloria Dindin and Marlina Alvizo, Pureza Fernandez, Cresencio Bagolor, Agustinito Hermoso, Luis Galang, Restituto Diano and Buenaventurada Pajo, Teresa Bernido, Ayaon Manggis and Marilyn Ojeda, all of the DPWH.

Together with them are Mandaue City engineers Hidelisa Latonio and assistant engineer Gregorio Omo and in Lapu-Lapu City, chief engineer Julito Cuizon and assistant engineers Fernando Tagaan Jr. and Rogelio Veloso.

The officials of the two companies which supplied the alleged overpriced lampposts, Gerardo Surla of Gampik Construction and Development, Inc. and Isabelo Braza of Fabmik Construction and Equipment Supply Co. Inc. were also among the accused.

The four graft cases against them were earlier reinvestigated by the anti-graft office because of their effort to include the report of the Commission on Audit that found the transaction anomalous.

But, Añover questioned the anti-graft’s basis in dragging the name of Ouano into the case even if he was not mentioned in the COA report.

“Nagtataka ako why he was included. He was not mentioned in the COA report,” Añover told The Freeman.

He added that it is also questionable why only local officials are charged when the project is supposed to be nationally funded. Añover suspected that his client as well as the other respondents were just used as scapegoats by national officials who are the real party to the contract.

The camp of Radaza claimed that the Ombudsman cannot re-file the case against him because the graft charges are still pending against him before the Sandiganbayan.

Based on the reinvestigation, anti-graft investigators claimed to have found evidence showing that Radaza, Ouano and the other public respondents were directly responsible for awarding the various contracts for the supply of street lighting facilities, testing and commissioning of LED bulbs, traffic signal lantern and other traffic control devices along roads in Cebu to Gampik Construction and Development, Inc. and Fabmik Construction and Equipment Supply Co. Inc.

Documents showed that the total contract price reached P164,524,401.25, an amount beyond the P60 million estimates of the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. – Fred P. Languido/BRP (THE FREEMAN)