Over road project Rama, 11 others sued

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council yesterday filed criminal charges against Mayor Michael Rama and 11 other City Hall officials and employees for allegedly violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The case stemmed from the City Hall's Bids and Awards Committee approval of a P50.4 million road construction project for the South Road Properties and awarding the same unlawfully to Supreme AFF Construction.

Councilor Margarita Osmeña, head of the City Council's budget and finance committee, questioned Rama's decision to sign the contract with private contractor Bernabe Gilbor without approval from the City Council, as what the law provides.

Aside from Rama, the other respondents in the case are Rafael Christopher Yap, chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee; City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete; BAC members Dominic Diño, Ester Concha, Eustaquio Cesa and Alipio Bacalso; Councilor Jose Daluz III, head of the BAC Technical Working Group; Rama's executive assistant Nenita Fernandez; City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez; engineers Joel Reston andYuri Sesican; and Gilbor.

The case was filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Osmeña said the respondents violated law by approving the P50.4 million contract and awarded it to Gilbor's construction company for the 2.2 kilometer road construction project without complying with all the necessary requirements.

She said that while the Local Government Code allows the mayor to sign documents on behalf of the city, he must first secure approval from the City Council to do the same.

"The haste and anomaly in the process adopted tailored to award the contract to Supreme ABF Construction is a clear violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and other pertinent laws and jurisprudence," the complaint reads.

The city legislators earlier argued that since the P50.4 million cost of the project shall be charged against the P100 million lump sum appropriation included in the 2012 Annual Budget, the concurrence of the City Council is needed.

She cited the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Gabriel Luis Quisumbing et al. vs. Gwendolyn Garcia, which provides that the executive officials should first ask consent from the legislative body if they want to implement projects that will be charged against the lump sum budget even if such appropriation has been approved already in the annual budget.

Osmeña said the members of BAC conducted the bidding process even if the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) dated February 27 did not bear the signature of the city treasurer and city administrator and the certificate of availability of funds was signed only by the mayor's executive assistant and not by the city treasurer.

The road construction project is intended for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

But the city administrator argued that there was no need to seek the Council's approval for the project because the Council already approved the itemized project for the SRP's P100 million lump sum budget in 2012.

Poblete and Rama said they will answer the complaint once the Ombudsman orders them to do so. —/JMO (FREEMAN)