Roxas’ supporters feud over ‘ghost project’
By Felipe V. Celino
Visayas Bureau
First Posted 20:32:00 07/15/2008
ROXAS CITY, Philippines -- A congressman accused the mayor of this city of constructing a P3.3 million project that never materialized when he was the governor of Capiz.
Representative Antonio del Rosario of the Capiz first district alleged that he had documents showing that Roxas City Mayor Vicente Bermejo had a "ghost project" worth over P2 million when he was Capiz governor.
Del Rosario said the "ghost project”, which involved the construction of the Baybay Lawis-Culasi road, was supposed to be done in two phases. The first phase covered 300 meters of road worth P1.992 million while the second phase involved the construction of a 200-meter road section worth P1.342 million, he said.
Del Rosario said the documents made it appear that the project was started on June 1, 2007 and was completed on June 30 of the same year.
However, Bermejo denied that the road project was non-existent, adding that Del Rosario was only "politicking."
Both Bermejo and Del Rosario were supporters of Senator Mar Roxas but has been trading accusations since the May 2007 elections.
He said the project was a road construction, not concreting, and was part of the circumferential road located in Sitio Monchit that led to a proposed relocation site in Culasi Nuevo.
Bermejo said the project was one of the 45 projects undertaken by the provincial government for the months of February to June 2007.
He explained the project was exempted from the election ban because it was already obligated and had passed the proper procedures such as bidding.
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