Makati mayor suspended

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman ordered yesterday the preventive suspension for six months of Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay and other city officials and employees in connection with the allegedly overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall parking building.

The suspension is immediately executory unless blocked by a court-issued temporary restraining order. Binay’s camp asked the Court of Appeals yesterday for the TRO.

The ombudsman ordered the preventive suspension just days after it found probable cause to conduct a preliminary investigation.

Binay’s suspension stems from the administrative charges he is facing for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

The mayor’s father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, though also a respondent in the criminal complaint, is not covered by the suspension that seeks to bar public officials from influencing the probe, witnesses or tampering with evidence using their positions.

The Binays were accused of pocketing commissions from the allegedly overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall parking building.

The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the Vice President, the mayor and 22 other incumbent and former government officials, employees and private individuals to answer the graft case filed against them.

The preliminary investigation will determine if there is sufficient ground or probable cause to file actual cases before the Sandiganbayan.

Among those also named in the complaint are former city administrator Marjorie de Veyra, city legal officer Pio Kenneth Dasal, city budget officer Lorenza Amores, former Central Planning Management Office (CPMO) chief Virginia Hernandez, former city engineer Mario Badillo, former city accountant Leonila Querijero, former acting city accountant Raydes Pestaño, city accountant Cecilio Lim III, acting city accountant Eleno Mendoza, city treasurer Nelia Barlis, CPMO engineers Arnel Cadangan, Emerito Magat and Connie Consulta, CPMO chief Line dela Peña, bids and awards committee (BAC) secretariat heads Giovanni Condes and Manolito Uyaco, technical working group (TWG) chairman Rodel Nayve, BAC member Ulysses Orienza, General Services Dept. OIC Gerardo San Gabriel, GSD staff member Norman Flores, as well as private respondents Orlando Mateo of MANA Architecture & Interior Design Co. and Efren Canlas of Hilmarc’s Construction Corp.

All the respondents were given 10 days to submit their counter-affidavits to the preliminary investigation bureau of the anti-graft agency.

Graft probers said the complaint was filed following months of case build-up and evidence gathering by the special panel composed of field investigators.

The complaint alleges, among other things, that public respondents awarded the P11.974-million contract for the design and/or architectural services to MANA without public bidding, and that periodic payments were released to the firm without its corresponding deliverables specified under the contract.

It adds that the bidding and the construction for Phases I and II (out of five phases) of the car park building proceeded without a detailed engineering plan from MANA, contrary to procurement laws and regulations.

The complaint further alleges that the procurement and award of the construction contract to Hilmarc’s were marred by irregularities, including the use of falsified documents showing the purported publications of Notices to Bid and the supposed participation of two losing bidders and/or companies, one of which categorically denied participation while the existence of the other cannot be established.

 In the preliminary investigation the Binays and their fellow respondents will be given the opportunity to answer the accusations and present counter evidence to prove their innocence.

Malacañang, for its part, said the suspension of Mayor Binay is the decision of the ombudsman.

“It is the decision of the ombudsman, an independent body, and part of their normative procedure,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda reiterated, implying that they have nothing to do with the administrative sanction.

The ombudsman announced last week that its fact-finding probers have found sufficient reason to proceed with the graft, malversation of public funds and violation of procurement law charges against the Binays and their co-respondents.

Members of the special panel of investigators elevated the case to preliminary investigation stage, the process in which the respondents will be given opportunity to answer the accusations.

In reaction, lawyer Rico Quicho said any charge of impropriety against the Vice President, Mayor Binay and Makati officials is frivolous and has no basis in fact and in law.

“We are confident that we will win on the merits,” he said in a statement sent to The STAR by Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado.

The camp of Vice President Binay appealed yesterday to the ombudsman not to allow itself to be used for political persecution, citing the undue haste in which the suspension of Mayor Binay was implemented.

Quicho said the undue and deliberate haste in the implementation of the preventive suspension of Mayor Binay demonstrates the direction in which the ombudsman would like to proceed with the case.

“And while we respect the decision to issue a preventive suspension order against Mayor Jejomar Erwin S. Binay, we pray that the Office of the Ombudsman will not allow itself to fall victim to the machinations of those with political ambitions,” Quicho said.

Quicho said the ombudsman should have scrutinized and evaluated the supporting documents so far presented in support of the complaint against Mayor Binay, the Vice President and other respondents before a rash and precipitate action.

He said the Vice President and his family have said that they are ready to face the charges against them and they welcome this opportunity to again explain their side and answer all allegations being hurled against them by political opponents.

“Mayor Binay, the Vice President and the other respondents would face the suspension and the complaint knowing that it is against a well-oiled government machinery that would stop at nothing to persecute and prevent the political opposition from running in the upcoming election,” Quicho said.

Sen. Nancy Binay said the suspension order issued against her brother the mayor is part of an overall operation to discredit her father, the Vice President.

Sen.Binay aired her surprise at the speed with which the decision by the Office of the Ombudsman came about, considering that it had just announced the conduct of preliminary investigation on the allegations against her father and brother in relation to the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building.

However, she said that it did not come as too much of a surprise to her anymore because of the developments against her family since the Vice President came out with his plan to run for president in 2016.

“We have been hearing about this for some time. That part of Oplan Nognog is to suspend the mayor of Makati. Because they thought that if they remove my brother (from office), they would cripple us,” she said.

Binay said that she would not be surprised if she and her other siblings would be the next targets under Oplan Nognog.

She said that her family has learned to accept these controversies being raised against them as part of the challenges they must go through. – With Helen Flores, Marvin Sy, Delon Porcalla