7 NPO executives in hot water

MANILA, Philippines -    Seven officials of the National Printing Office (NPO) are in hot water for awarding a contract to repair an elevator in their head office in Quezon City to a printing firm.

Retired colonel Emmanuel Andaya, NPO acting director, and six subordinates namely lawyer Sylvia Banda, NPO Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairperson; NPO-BAC members Josefina Samson, engineer Antonio Sillona, Bernadette Lagumen, and Ma. Gracia Enriquez, and one John Doe, were slapped with a graft complaint for the questionable grant of a P665,000 contract to repair an elevator in their office last Dec. 14.

Napoleon Bunagan, Robert Bunagan, and Cristina Bunagan, all officers of the Eastland Printlink, Inc., a printing company based in Barrio Ugong, Valenzuela City, were also included in the graft complaint.

Guillermo Sylianteng Jr. a private printer, filed the complaint, saying Eastland Printlink was not engaged or licensed as a contractor for the installation, maintenance and repair of elevators.

Sylianteng added that the printing firm was not an authorized agent of Hyundai, the brand of the elevator at the NPO that they were supposed to repair.

“Clearly, Eastland is not a Hyundai authorized service agent nor is even authorized to engage in the services of elevator repair and maintenance, Eastland did not even acquire a permit from the Quezon City Building Official’s Office for the repair of the NPO elevator,” Sylianteng said in his complaint.

“As a result of the conspiracy among all the respondents, Eastland was given undue advantage by way of its receiving an undeserved order which it was neither qualified nor eligible to accept in the amount of P665,000 representing repair and parts cost to the detriment of government and public safety,” the complaint added.

Sylianteng previously filed a string of plunder and graft cases against concerned NPO executives for alleged anomalous transactions.