Negros mayor, 5 others indicted for graft

BACOLOD CITY—The Ombudsman has  indicted Mayor Rommel Yogore  of Valladolid town in Negros Occidental province and five others for graft charges for repairing a rural health unit worth P250,000 without conducting a public bidding.

The antigraft office  also found probable cause to charge four  local officials and Yogore’s brother-in-law for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The local officials were Giovani Robles, municipal agriculturist and chair of the bids and awards committee (BAC); Joseph Alfonso Manayon, municipal engineer and BAC vice chair, and BAC members Daisy Galve and Merlene Magbanua.

Jonie Nieve, proprietor of JB Nieve Hardware and Construction Supply and husband of Yogore’s sister, was included being the “recipient of such unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference,” the resolution also said.

Rayfrando Diaz, legal counsel of Yogore, said they would ask the Ombudsman to reconsider its decision. He maintained that the town conducted a canvass for the best price for the project’s construction materials.

Diaz said the resolution dated October 2012 was approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales in April 2014.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Larry Concepcion, a resident of Valladolid and a Radyo Veritas broadcaster, who alleged that the Valladolid rural health unit funded by a P250,000 grant  from the Department of Health was repaired and improved  without public bidding.

Even before the canvass was made and the contract was awarded to JB Nieve Hardware and Construction Supply, the construction materials were already delivered and accepted in December 2008, Concepcion said.

Concepcion also alleged that the hardware was owned by Jonie Nieve, husband of the mayor’s sister.

The respondents, however, said the complaint  was  political harassment  and was meant to retaliate after the mayor charged Concepcion with libel.

The Ombudsman said in the resolution that the procurement was done through “shopping,” one alternative method of procurement allowed under Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

Under such method, the procuring entity would simply request for the submission of price quotations for readily available off-the-shelf goods or regular/ordinary equipment to be procured directly from suppliers of known qualification.

But under RA 9184, shopping can be used if there is an unforeseen contingency requiring immediate purchase as long as the amount does not exceed P50,000.

Another condition is that procurement of regular/ordinary office supplies and equipment not available in the Procurement Service should not go beyond P250,000.

The law also provides that the procurement would not result in splitting of contracts and at least three price quotations must be obtained from bona fide suppliers.

But the Ombudsman said in the resolution that bidding should have been conducted because construction materials cannot be considered ordinary or regular office supplies.

The purchase, it added, could not also be considered to have been caused by “unforeseen contingency.”

With no competitive bidding conducted, unwarranted benefits and advantage were given to JB Nieve Hardware and Construction Supply. Further, it was not determined whether the most advantageous price was obtained by the municipality for lack of public bidding, the resolution said.