10 private shop owners quizzed

The preliminary investigating arm of the Ombudsman has asked 10 owners of vehicle repair shops to submit affidavits in connection with its probe on the alleged P182-million vehicle repair scam at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The Evaluation and Preliminary Investigation Bureau (EPIB) has asked the owners of the repair shops based in and outside Metro Manila, including five shops that cornered many of DPWH’s repair contracts in 2001, to submit their counter-affidavits or else be charged with plunder, among other charges.

The shop owners are Conchita de la Cruz of the Bulacan-based DEB company; Jesus Capuz of the Cavite-based JCAP; Victor Maniego Go of the Laguna-based Olympus company; Vicente Santos of Vicsan in Quezon City; Janette Bugayong, Rodellia Uy, and Romeo and Nonette Fullido, all of Quezon City, Carmelito Edem of Muntinlupa City, and Augusto Capuz of Bacoor, Cavite.

The alleged vehicle repair scam involved 9,000 repair transactions that underwent no bidding at all since they cost less than P25,000.

But the DPWH’s seven-month internal probe showed that five contractors took a lion’s share of 2,000 contracts that were bid out in 2001, namely, DEB, JCAP, Olympus, Vicsan and a company named Franz. Combined, the five firms cornered 1,900 of the 2,000 repair contracts of DPWH.