Suspend Soriquez, 4 others, Sandigan asked

Government prosecutors asked the Sandiganbayan yesterday to suspend Public Works and Highways Secretary Florante Soriquez and four other DPWH officials who have been indicted for alleged graft in the P2.7-billion anti-lahar megadike scam.

In a three-page motion, prosecutor Cicero Jurado and deputy special prosecutor Robert Kallos told the anti-graft court’s fifth division that the suspension of Soriquez and DPWH officials Rey David, Ulysis Manago, Juan Gonzales and Gil Rivera is "mandatory" under the law.

"The prosecution maintains that the information is valid and invoking the mandate of the law and jurisprudence, the suspension of the accused pending litigation is mandatory," they said in their motion.

Soriquez and the other DPWH officials were investigated and later charged in court after a huge portion of the megadike in Pampanga collapsed in August 1996 due to heavy lahar flow.

The megadike was constructed to keep the flow of lahar away from Central Luzon towns already deep in the volcanic residue.

Soriquez was the former director of the Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation Project before he was appointed DPWH assistant secretary in March 2001.

He became DPWH secretary last April 27 after Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando relinquished the position.

Soriquez, a career employee at the DPWH since 1962, has expressed his willingness to resign when President Arroyo finds a suitable replacement.

Soriquez, according to Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, worked his way to the top from laborer to undersecretary.

The 61-year-old DPWH chief earned his civil engineering degree at the Mapua Institute of Technology.

He is renowned for helping build the Ninoy Aquino International Airport driveway, the Guadalupe interchange in Makati City, and the Tramo Road in Pasay City.