Taguig mayor faces new graft raps

Opposition councilors in Taguig filed with the Office of the Ombudsman new graft complaints against Mayor Sigfrido "Freddie" Tinga as well as two others, this time involving an alleged P16-million overprice in the purchase of notebooks distributed to students in the town’s public elementary and high schools.

The complaints were filed by Councilors Carlos Catacio and Noel Dizon, along with former Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairmen Ryanne Gutierrez, Wilfredo Dubia, and Noli Maceda.

Aside from Tinga, also named as respondents were Josefina Esutaquio, co-chairman of the school board, and Lydi Galvez Padlan, owner-proprietor of the Pasig City-based Ingrid Salas Enterprises.

In what the complainants dubbed as the "Taguig notebook scandal," Tinga and his co-respondents allegedly "defrauded the government and the people of Taguig" of at least P10.6 million, "representing the overprice in notebooks purchased for grade school and high school students of the municipality."

According to the complainants, the municipal government ordered 40,000 high school notebooks for P49.95 each and 327,478 pieces of grade school notebooks for P46 each. The total transaction cost reached P15.89 million.

The notebooks had the mayor’s message printed on the inside front cover and colored photos of his activities at the back.

But Ricky Dizon, a spokesperson of the mayor, said the transaction was above board.

"It was subjected to a bidding. In fact, the cost of the high school notebooks were even below the projected budget," Dizon told reporters.

He added that the prices quoted by the complainants did not only include notebooks. "It was actually an organizer."

He added that the mayor’s group would welcome all the complaints that would be filed against Tinga. Dizon remained confident that whatever case filed against the mayor would ultimately be dismissed. – Nikko Dizon