Officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways indicted in the ASEAN Summit lamppost controversy said they were happy after the Court of Appeals rendered a decision granting their petition for certiorari.
DPWH legal counsel Augustinito Hermoso yesterday said that with the granting of their petition, they can now file a better counter-affidavit on the accusations lodged against them.
The DPWH filed the petition before the higher court after the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas reportedly refused to give them the copies of the 300 out of the more than 500 pages of supporting documents.
The Visayas Ombudsman earlier denied their request last November, contending that the 300 pages were just mere duplication and had no bearing to the case.
With the CA decision, Hermoso said that they will seek an impartial and investigating body, either the Ombudsman-Luzon or the Ombudsman-Mindanao.
“Biased na man kaayo nang Ombudsman-Visayas. We were already pre-judged nga guilty mi. We were not given due process from the very start,” Hermoso said.
Meanwhile, the members of the Provincial Board yesterday passed a resolution expressing their disappointment on the exclusion of high-level officials of DPWH on the controversy surrounding the lampposts.
“Somehow the people had witness a malfunction of logic in the pursuit of justice against the overpriced lamp posts when the Ombudsman decided to charge only the local officials specifically the mayors of the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and their respective city engineers and also the regional officials of the DPWH excluding high-level officials of the DPWH,” the resolution sponsored by PB member Victor Maambong read.
Maambong said that DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane and DPWH’s Road User’s Tax Board executive director Rodolfo Puno must also be indicted and not just former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and their respective city engineers and local DPWH officials.
Based on investigations conducted by the Ombudsman in the Visayas, the lampposts, which were erected in major thoroughfares in the cities of Mandaue and Cebu in time for the ASEAN Summit last year, were grossly overpriced. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP