Exposing the real Mr. Saavedra
Exactly 10 years ago, the
10 years have passed since we suffered this financial meltdown. For tonight’s show on Straight from the Sky, we bring you an in-depth discussion on why the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit the region, why no one expected this to happen and most important of all, whether this historic financial debacle would repeat itself. To share with us their insights on this event, we have with us Mr. Ruben Almendras of
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I still don’t know why this Mr. Cris Saavedra has been given some kind of importance by the media where he openly and unceasingly bad mouths companies that have been in the business for many years as if they were selling inferior products so he could justify another plunder case. I’m referring to the wireless surveillance cameras deal that Mr. Saavedra has been hitting over the radio and in the newspapers. He apparently has the ear of many of our media friends. Clearly, Mr. Saavedra is making us believe that when he speaks,
A case in point was the report in The Freeman last Saturday entitled, “Halt of CICC changes sought.” In that story, Mr. Saavedra wanted the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to stop the
Reading that article, one might think that Mr. Saavedra calls the shots at the CICC? No sir, the reputation of this fellow as a nobody is fast surfacing thanks to his own mouth! There is an old Chinese proverb that goes, “Small talk, small mistake, big talk big mistake!” In Bisaya,”daghan ug sulti, daghan ug sayop.” So now it’s time to turn the tables against Mr. Saavedra!
If you looked at the banner headlines of The Freeman last Saturday, it was about the deal that Mr. Saavedra has been bad mouthing in the media about the Metro Cebu Traffic Surveillance Monitoring Project. We’ve said it here before that Mr. Saavedra is what we call a “Jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.” He participates in many government deals, knowing that many of these government officials like those in the DPWH are reportedly corrupt and if he loses, he files cases against these people and eagerly offers a hefty compromise that they let him win the bidding!
This Traffic Surveillance deal is a classic Saavedra case. His company Pelican Bay/Cebesos Development Corp. with an authorized capital of a mere P50,000 would participate in a multi-million project biding against Triton Communications Corp. a company with a paid-up capital P17 million to supply state-of-the art surveillance cameras, where Triton is the authorized dealer of Motorola products. If I was the Bidding and Awards Committee (BAC) on face value alone, there would be no contest between Mr. Saavedra’s company and Triton Communications simply because the latter is an authorized dealer for the products to be used in this project.
But what has Mr. Saavedra’s company offered? What kind of surveillance cameras did he mention in his bid? I heard that he didn’t even put a brand name, not even a fake name! Perhaps the most revealing thing of all was when my neighbor, Mr. Leo Lastimosa, interviewed Mr. Sonny Tacardon last Friday morning and asked Mr. Saavedra: “What brand of equipment would his company have installed?” Mr. Saavedra then replied that the brand wasn’t important. Whaaat? Isn’t this what he has been harping all along, questioning the quality of the products that Triton Communications installed in this project? Then suddenly, if brand isn’t important why was he questioning these products in the first place?
The truth is, Mr. Saavedra has been caught with his foot in his mouth! He participated in a deal that he lost because he couldn’t deliver at the allotted time. Perhaps he was still looking for a supplier. Hence the deal went to the more reliable Triton Communications. Now is a good time to ask: Is Mr. Saavedra really a whistleblower or is he just another sore loser?
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