DPWH undersecretary charged

A Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary is now facing graft charges filed by a supposed newspaper publisher over last December’s alleged anomalous bidding on a P2.5 billion flood control project in Pangasinan.

Undersecretary Edmund Mir has been ordered by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission chairman Dario Rama to answer the charges after "finding sufficient basis to commence administrative investigation."

Based on the 13-page complaint filed by Emiliano Nolasco of the Angeles City-based newspaper, The Weekly Gazette, members of the DPWH Bids and Awards Committee headed by Mir favored certain bidders for the four-phase Agno Flood Control Project. The project, to be constructed in Bayambang, Pangasinan is reportedly designed to resolve floodings in Pangasinan and Tarlac due to the river’s current heavily siltation and its weakened dike. The two biddings were reportedly conducted last Dec. 13 at the DPWH central office in Manila and witnessed by a reporter of the newspaper, among others, identified by Nolasco as Lailani Garcia. Nolasco was complaining that despite earlier noted deficiencies, the subsequently winning bidders Ital-Thai for package 1 and Daewoo for package 2 were allowed to participate in the bidding. Ital-Thai was later disqualified and the contract awarded to the package 1’s third lowest bidder Toa company.

But Mir countered that Nolasco was lobbying for Daewoo in the first package and a Chinese contractor for the second package. Mir said that although the winning bidders had deficiencies these were later corrected and the decision to disqualify them was discretionary on the committee. Mir said that should Nolasco’s preferred bidders be awarded the contracts, the project would exceed its budget. — Jose Aravilla