Baguio exec, engineer arrested for extortion
Assistant city engineer Elpidio Garabiles, 56, yielded the P10,000 marked money allegedly for the Bicol trip of city engineer Leo Bernardez.
The marked money was handed over by Rudy Echague, a contractor, to engineer II Richard Lardizabal at the city engineering office at City Camp Lagoon. Lardizabal, in turn, gave the money to Garabiles, who placed it in his drawer.
Echague told reporters that Lardizabal had extorted from him money, bottles of brandy and other things in exchange for favors from the city engineering office.
“We have given them at least P80,000 and our project is only worth P2.4 million,” he said.
Echague alleged that Lardizabal recently demanded P10,000 supposedly for Bernardez’s Bicol trip when he tried to collect a 10 percent retention fee amounting to less than P200,000 for a project.
Garabiles said he thought that Lardizabal gave him the money “for safekeeping.”
For his part, Lardizabal said Echague has an ax to grind against them after the Commission on Audit found defects in the contractor’s project.
Because of the COA findings, he said they had to be careful in releasing the papers for Echague’s collection.
The NBI said it is recommending administrative cases against Garabiles and Lardizabal, as well as charges of robbery with intimidation and extortion and graft and corruption.
Echague said other contractors are pressing similar charges against the two government engineers.
Bernardez insisted that he had no knowledge of such illegal activities in his office.
Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said he was still awaiting the official report on the arrest of Garabiles and Lardizabal.
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