Lapu mayor, DepEd told to account for suspended workers

The Ombudsman-Visayas is checking whether its order to suspend 18 Lapu-Lapu City officials for six months for their involvement in the 2005 overpriced purchase of 470 personal computers has been carried out.

The anti-graft office has yet to receive written confirmation from the Lapu-Lapu City government about its compliance with the order issued last July.

Asst. Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago said she would write to Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza and the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) to determine if the sanctions were enforced.

Speaking in behalf of Mayor Radaza, Lapu-Lapu City consultant Jonjie Gonzalez said most of the respondents were serving their six-month suspension after the Ombudsman released the verdict last July.

Only three respondents have yet to be suspended on Dec. 16. He said the mayor could not remember the their names offhand.

“According to Mayor Radaza, she is near full compliance of the order of the Ombudsman to suspend those allegedly involved in the computer case,” Gonlazes said.

“A decision should be implemented otherwise it will become useless,” Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol told Cebu Daily News.

Three months ago, Apostol said Mayor Radaza asked permission from the anti-graft office if it was possible not to have the respondents suspended all at once so operations in the city would not be hampered.

Apostol said they referred Radaza’s letter to the central office in Manila but haven’t received any response yet.

“I’m not certain if the penalty was implemented. I presume it was,” he said.

Bad image

In 2007, businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. filed a complaint against Rep. Arturo Radaza, then city mayor of Lapu-Lapu, and 18 others over the computers.

He said the purchase of P23.4 million worth of computers was overpriced. They were delivered to the city’s public high schools in 2005.

About 470 personal computers were bought for P49,950 each.

An inventory showed that PCs of the same quality were being sold for only P24,700 and P31,236 as stated in the sales invoices of two computer stores at the time.

After investigation, the anti-graft office said the 470 computers should have cost P10.857 million instead of P23.476 million, a price difference of P12.619 million.

About 30 of the computers were stationed in public high schools of island-barangays that don’t have power.

The Ombudsman-Visayas found the respondents guilty of conduct grossly prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

This is an administrative offense which refers to the “conduct of an official or employee which gives a bad image to the public service.”

The respondents who were meted a penalty of six months suspension without pay were city administrator Teodulo Ybañez; budget officer Victoria Andoy; treasurer Elena Pacaldo; and members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and the technical and inspection groups.

Also included were city general services officer Cleofe Solis; and supervising administrative officer Leandro Dante.

Mayor Arturo Radaza was included in the administrative case but his reelection in 2007 left the charge moot and academic based on the Aguinaldo Doctrine. In 2010, his wife Paz was elected mayor.

Two respondents—Pacaldo and Solis—have since retired. Former legal officer Vincent Joseph Lim and assistant city engineer Fernando Tagaan Jr, have died.

Serena Uy, Lapu-Lapu City school superintendent, was also found guilty of the same offense and ordered suspended for six months.

Mayor Paz Radaza was mandated by the Ombudsman to enforce the penalty against Lapu-Lapu City officials while DepEd-7 Director Recaredo Borgonia was ordered to enforce the suspension of Uy.

Pelaez, who ran for Lapu-Lapu City mayor in the 2010 election under the Liberal Party and lost, said he wants to know what happened to the penalty.

“They have to face the music. They have to follow what the law provides. They can’t just do what they want,” he added.

Still, Pelaez said he is contented with the outcome of the complaint he filed with the Ombudsman.

Other than the guilty verdict of the anti-graft office, Tanodbayan Conchita Carpio-Morales also found probable cause to elevate to the Sandiganbayan the criminal charges against Congressman Radaza, who approved the Purchase Request of the project.

Pelaez, in a press statement, said he was happy with this development.

“We hope that justice will prevail. Radaza and his cohorts have all the opportunity to prove their innocence but we hope they will defend themselves in court so they can clear their names if indeed they are innocent of the crimes they are charged with,” he said.

Scams

Pelaez, a director of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI), said hopes the case will serve as a lesson to the public.

“In the meantime, we will continue the fight until all the scams we have asked the Ombudsman to look into in Lapulapu City since 2007 are properly investigated and acted upon,” said Pelaez, who chairs the Lapu-Lapu City chapter of the Liberal Party.

Pelaez filed the complaint through his Coralpoint Educational Foundation, Inc., which showed that the price paid by the government for the computers was too high.

Radaza approving the request of the DepEd’s Lapu Lapu Division to buy the computers. Kein Enterprises was awarded the contract to supply the computers at P49,950 per unit.

However, the Ombudsman Visayas said the items that Kein Enterprises delivered were inferior and violated the specifications in the purchase order.

The anti-graft office said the 470 computers were overpriced by P12.6 million.  Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter