Solons scold Pampanga town mayor for skipping irregular contracts probe
House of Representatives. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers from the House Committee on public accounts have warned the mayor of Mexico town in Pampanga that he may be cited for contempt should he fail to attend the next hearing on alleged irregularities involving his administration.
During the panel’s hearing on Wednesday, Surigao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Johnny Pimentel made a motion to issue a subpoena ad testificandum against Mayor Teddy Tumang, who was the subject of the congressional probe due to transactions flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Tumang is still the incumbent local chief executive, but the transactions in question occurred during his previous stint as mayor, from 2007 to 2010.
Tumang did not attend the hearing, but Mexico Vice Mayor Rodencio Gonzales and the Mayor’s legal counsel were present — prompting Pimentel to ask if Gonzales could answer questions regarding the purchase requests and biddings flagged by COA.
“Now Mr. Chair, my questions will be directed to Mayor Tumang because the subject matter of the this audit report which is about two inches thick is Mayor Tumang himself, because he signed the P149 million supposedly anomalous transactions by himself,” Pimentel told committee chair and Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano.
“So kailangan po natin na ang makasagot nito, is si Mayor Tumang mismo. Ngayon ang tanong ko kay Vice Mayor, kayo po ba ay Vice Mayor no’ng 2007 to 2010, and are you privy to these transactions?” Pimentel asked Gonzales, to which the latter replied in the negative.
(So we need someone who can answer this, and it’s Mayor Tumang himself. Now my question to the Vice Mayor is, are you the Vice Mayor from 2007 to 2010, and are you privy to these transactions?)
When asked by Pimentel if he can answer issues involving Tumang, Gonzales said he cannot since he is not privy to the issues raised before the House panel.
“‘Yon na nga ang sinasabi ko Mr. Chair, we need the principal resource person, siya lang po ang makakasagot nito because there have been several hundred of vouchers signed by Mayor Tumang, at hindi po masasagot ng vice mayor ‘yan, hindi rin po masasagot ng mga councilors,” the lawmaker said.
(That’s what I am talking about, Mr. Chair, we need the principal resource person because only he can answer these because there have been several hundred vouchers signed by Mayor Tumang, and the vice mayor and the councilors cannot answer that.)
“Ipaalam po ninyo kay Mayor that I will be suggesting or moving for the issuance of a subpoena to him. Now, ‘pag hindi ho siya sumipot during the next hearing, may I remind all of you that Congress has also the power to issue contempt,” he added.
(Please inform the Mayor that I will be suggesting or moving to issue a subpoena to him. Now, if he does not attend the next hearing, may I remind all of you that Congress also has the power to issue contempt.)
Paduano eventually heard Pimentel’s motion, which was duly seconded and was not objected to by fellow committee members. The committee chair agreed that Tumang has to be present so that he can elaborate on the questions surrounding the transactions.
“We need Mayor Tumang to be physically present. As I’ve said, he’s not around, he waived his right,” Paduano said. He subsequently told the lawyer to submit Tumang’s explanation for his absence.
According to Pimentel, COA received a letter in 2010 from municipal officials asking the commission to do a special audit of Tumang’s transactions due to fears of irregularity.
Ernesto Punzalan, who filed the complaint affidavit asking why Tumang has not faced prosecution, was also present during the meeting. According to Punzalan, there were anomalies in the processing of contracts by the Mexico local government, including a loan agreement with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) amounting to P950 million.
“For the information of everyone, in 2010, COA — the Commission on Audit — received a letter from some of the municipal officials from the Municipality of Mexico requesting for an audit with regards to the transactions of Mayor Tumang from 2007 to 2010. Now based on these letter request, COA then created an audit fraud investigation team, this was created on October 4, 2010,” he said.
“In the audit report, there were many anomalous transactions that were found, in fact, several vouchers were presented, several purchase requests were presented. And one of the findings is that of the P43,168,403.79, procurement contracts amounting to P28,744,662 were awarded to bidders who had either close relationship or personal dealings with the head of the procuring entity,” he added.
Pimentel then turned to one of the auditors who did the special audit on the Mexico local governments, Deborah Araujo, who confirmed that they had issued Notices of Disallowance (ND), which basically disallows government contracts or dealings — meaning officials and businesses involved have to return the money involved to the treasury.
“As per our records, the notice of disallowance that was issued by the team had already COA decision, so the decision is already final, by the commission proper of the Commission on Audit. And per records also, they have already refunded most of the transactions where which we have issued notices of disallowance except for the batches of transactions of which a motion for reconsideration was still in order,” she said.
“As to the submission to the Office of the Ombudsman, our transmittal of the audit report is not dependent on the issuance of the ND, so once we submitted the audit report, which also recommended for the filing of the charges, the Ombudsman can already file charges without the issuance of the ND,” she added.
Tumang attracted controversy before while he was Mayor of the said town. In 2011, The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of graft charges Tumang for allegedly allowing illegal quarrying activities on a private property in 2005 despite the owner’s objections.
READ: Pampanga mayor faces suit for illegal quarry
Then in 2019, the COA-Commission Proper asked the Ombudsman to probe and file appropriate charges against Tumang, other local officials, and a contractor for an allegedly irregular purchase of construction materials worth P39.2 million.
In a 2010 special audit of the agency had revealed that the P39.2 million transaction with Buyu Trading and Construction (BTC) – described by COA as “supplier with questionable capacity”– had “deficiencies” such as failure to issue official receipts.
