Axe falls
When it rains, it pours.
This is true for former Lapu-Lapu City mayor now Congressman Arturo Radaza who underwent knee surgery last month. On top of health issues, the lawmaker, along with 18 other city officials and one private individual are facing graft charges before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the alleged irregular purchase in 2005 of 470 units of personal computers for the city’s national and public high schools.
The money transaction which cost the city some P23,476,500 would have gone unnoticed except that a local foundation headed by businessman Ephraim Pelaez spotted a rather glaring anomaly. The City Schools Division requested PCs with Pentium 4 processors and 512 megabytes of memory, but the supplier delivered computer units having Celeron processors with only 256 megabytes of memory.
The local government paid P23.47 million for a transaction which should have cost only P10.857 million. The price difference of more than P12 million allegedly went into the pockets of the city officials led by Radaza, although newspaper accounts at that time said kickbacks went as high as P17 million.
It took more than six years and a new Ombudsman in the person of Conchita Carpio-Morales for the axe to finally fall on Radaza. The timeline of the investigation and recommendation has to be established but under then ombudsman Merceditas Guttierez the agency seemed to be breeding mildew which collected on various graft cases. We can only hope that under the P-Noy dispensation, patronage politics, the monkey wrench thrown into the cog that spins the wheels of truth will be isolated at least from constitutional bodies like the Ombudsman, as well as the courts of justice.
The case against Radaza is significant because unlike other graft cases involving politicians, it was a businessman who exposed the official wrongdoing, not political rivals. The aphorism “one can’t fight City Hall” is supposed to be appreciated by businessmen more than any sector, but Pelaez threw all caution to the wind.
After standing up to the city executive, he was slapped with charges of tax evasion, violations of building code regulations, etc. The conflict escalated when the then mayor ordered the closure of Pelaez’s Marina Mall inside the Mactan Export Processing Zone.
In 2010, Pelaez ran for mayor of Lapu-Lapu City on the platform of good governance but Paz Radaza, wife of Arturo prevailed in the elections. Meanwhile, faced by a constitutional ban that prohibits elected officials from seeking a fourth consecutive term, Arturo ran for congressman in the newly created Lapu-Lapu City district and handily won.
Will the congressional mantle help shield Radaza from his legal woes? Only time will tell, but the case of the Ampatuans and even that of former President and now Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo show that political influence has a shelf life. An official accused of wrongdoing will eventually confront the legal process, sooner if not later.
With the Ombudsman finally filing cases against public officials involved in the purchase of overpriced computers, and the Sandiganbayan conducting trial on the 1,800 overpriced decorative lampposts installed in Metro Cebu during the 2007 Asean Summit, I wonder what is keeping the anti-graft office from acting on the recommendation of then Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro to file malversation charges against former Cebu 4th district Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez and eight others implicated in the P26.5-million Girl Scouts of the Philippines funds mess which erupted in 2003.
The Martinezes belong to the administration Liberal Party so it’s not surprising there is speculation that the Ombudsman is dragging its feet on the GSP funds case. However, I think the political slant is just an embellishment because it is the legal angle that spurs more interest and discussion among observers.
According to the Ombudsman report, the respondent has raised the defense that the unaccounted amount of P10 million had been returned to government coffers. The implication is that restoring the said amount would extinguish the guilt or responsibility of the accused.
Still, the anti-graft body went ahead with the recommendation to file the proper charges.
This is an intriguing case that only the Sandiganbayan or the Supreme Court has authority to decide on.
