Cops charged in speedboat scam

According to CIDG Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr., the transaction was disadvantageous to the government and caused a financial loss to the PNP as the purchased units were useless. INQUIRER file photo

Six Philippine National Police (PNP) officers are facing graft charges in connection with the allegedly irregular purchase of 16 defective speedboats for P5 million in 2009.

The officers, all from the PNP’s Logistic Support Services (LSS) and Directorate for Comptrollership (DC), were charged before the Ombudsman on September 22 by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) with violation of the antigraft law.

According to CIDG Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr., the transaction was disadvantageous to the government and caused a financial loss to the PNP as the purchased units were useless.

He said the case was separate from another allegedly irregular transaction involving the PNP’s acquisition, also in 2009, of rubber boats that turned out not to be compatible with the outboard motors that came with them.

Charged were Senior Superintendent Job Marasigan, Superintendent. Leodigario Visaya, Chief Inspectors Juanito Estrebor and Renalfa Saculles, all members of the inspection and acceptance committee of the PNP LSS, and Superintendent Henry Duque and Police Officer 3 Avensuel Dy, both members of the DC management division office.

According to the CIDG investigation, on Sept. 1, 2009, the PNP Maritime Group (PNP-MG) was given the authority to procure through a public bidding 16 “police coastal craft” for the  approved amount of P5 million.

On Nov. 27, 2009, the contract was awarded to Four Petals Trading which offered the winning bid of P4,799,984. The contract for the 16 boats was signed in December 2009 between Senior Supt. Asher Dolina, chair of the bids and awards committee, and Pacita Umali, the owner of Four Petals.

Following the delivery of the boats on March 22, 2010, Four Petals on Aug. 2, 2010, requested the chief of the PNP-MG’s logistics office to inspect the units.

The inspection team composed of representatives from the Directorate for Research and Development, the PNP-MG and the supervising technical audit specialist of the Commission on Audit found that the engines were all diesel-fed, instead of gasoline, and that some units were defective and in need of repair.

Successive recommendations were made on Aug. 23, 2010, Sept. 3, 2010, and Oct. 18, 2010, for the supplier to repair and repaint the fast craft before the PNP would formally accept the units.

After Four Petals ignored the request to repair the defective units, Chief Superintendent Francisco Don Montenegro, the PNP-MG director, sent the firm a notice of termination for nonperformance of obligations, the CIDG said.

However, it was later found that the four accused who were members of the IAC-LSS had conducted an earlier inspection of the units in July 2010 without the knowledge of the PNP-MG, and had accepted the defective units despite the group’s complaints.

This act, according to the CIDG, ran counter to an existing resolution stipulating that the only entity authorized to accept the 16 boats was the Maritime Group.

Investigators also found that through the spurious IAC-LSS report, which was attached to the disbursement voucher, the accounting division processed the issuance of the “premature or untimely payment of the 16 units of PCC before the PNP-MG formally accepted the units.”

“This irregularity could have been avoided if Superintendent Marasigan and his team had been diligent and had been more circumspect and had they not usurped the authority of the PNP-MG to inspect and accept the 16 units of coastal craft,” the CIDG said.

The six officers were charged with violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Law, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, the Government Procurement Act, and for usurpation of authority.