NBI probe sought: Dalaguete road concreting project paid twice?

CEBU, Philippines — A former mayoralty candidate of Dalaguete, Cebu has filed a complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-7 for it to investigate incumbent Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Allan Cesante and other town officials, over a “questionable” road concreting project.

In his one-page complaint, Engr. Ildebrando Almagro, former municipal engineer, said that despite having a contractor for the project, the local government unit deployed its workers and equipment to do the job.

He said he summoned enough courage to file a complaint against Cesante and the others of the municipal government after the NBI-7 filed complaints against Cesante and other personalities following its investigation into the death of a construction worker last June 11, 2024.

“We have to stop these government officials leeching the coffers of our government to enrich themselves,” Almagro said.

Sought for his comment, Cesante dismissed Almagro’s complaint.

“Lain na sad ni nga baseless accusations. The project is implemented by the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) through a private contractor. To the interest of the LGU (local government unit), since it’s part of our road expansion project at the Poblacion Business Center, we saw to it that the project was implemented rightly, thus our engineering office’s monitoring,” he said.

Cesante said he would file his response as soon as the NBI provides him with a copy of Almagro’s complaint.

“We trust that the NBI will sift through the details and allow us to provide the correct information,” he said.

Almagro, though, is standing firm on his allegations.

He said the contract price for the project is P 9.6 million and he have been observing this road construction since this is very close to his house and therefore he could monitor it every day.

Almagro said that he took pictures of the workers, most of them he knew personally as employed by the Municipality of Dalaguete.

Their work, Almagro said is supervised by Engr. Expeditas Lenares who is the Municipal Engineer of Dalaguete and that the equipment has the “Dalaguete Rising” logo and clearly shows that the Municipality of Dalaguete owns them.

In his letter-complaint to NBI-7 Regional Director Rennan Augustus Oliva, Almagro said that he has geo-tagged pictures to support his allegation as well as interviews of people in the vicinity of the project, to corroborate his statement.

“As of now, the condition of this finished road project is in severe scaling, exposing the aggregates," he said.

“Sa Bisaya pa, nanggawas ang mga bato kay gidaginot ang semento. Sir, this modus has to end, our government is paying twice for one and the same project,” Almagro said.

Expounding on why he said “twice”, he alleged the municipal government is spending for the project and then the DPWH also released funding for the same project.

“Clearly someone pocketed the funding from DPWH,” Almagro claimed.

In an interview, Oliva said they will conduct an investigation on this matter, after receiving Almagro’s letter-complaint. —/RHM (FREEMAN)