Graft Raps for Mayor Rama,City Hall Officials, Employees

The Cebu City Council yesterday filed criminal charges against Mayor Michael Rama and 11 other City Hall officials and employees for allegedly violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The case stemmed after the City Hall’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) approved the P50.4 million road construction project for the South Road Properties and awarded it to Supreme AFF Construction without complying the provisions of the law.

Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, the City Council’s head of the budget and finance committee, questioned Rama’s actuation in signing the contract with private contractor Bernabe Gilbor even without the consent of the City Council as what the law provides.

Aside from the mayor, the other respondents in a case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas are Rafael Christopher Yap as chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee, City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete, BAC members Dominic Diño, Ester Concha, Eustaquio Cesa and Alipio Bacalso.

Other respondents include Councilor Jose Daluz III, as head of the BAC Technical Working Group, Rama’s executive assistant Nenita Fernandez, City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez, Engineers Joel Reston, Yuri Sesican and contractor Gilbor.

Osmeña said the respondents have violated the provisions of the law by approving the P50.4 million contract and awarded it to Gilbor’s construction company for the 2.2 kilometer road construction project without complying with all the necessary requirements.

She said that although the mayor under the Local Government Code is authorized to sign documents on behalf of the city, he must first secure the approval of the City Council.

“The haste and anomaly in the process adopted tailored to award the contract to Supreme ABF Construction is a clear violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and other pertinent laws and jurisprudence,” the complaint reads.

The city legislators earlier argued that since the P50.4 million cost of the project shall be charged against the P100 million lump sum appropriation included in the 2012 Annual Budget, the concurrence of the City Council is needed.

She cited the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Gabriel Luis Quisumbing et al. vs. Gwendolyn Garcia which provides that the executive officials should first ask consent from the legislative body if they want to implement projects that will be charged against the lump sum budget even if such appropriation has been approved already in
the annual budget.

Osmeña said the members of BAC conducted the bidding process even if the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) dated February 27 has no signature from the city treasurer and city administrator, and the certificate of availability of funds was signed only by the mayor’s executive assistant not by the city treasurer.

The road construction project is intended for the Bus Rapid Transit to operate in SRP.

The city administrator argued that there is no need for the council’s approval because the City Council already approved the itemized project for the SRP’s P100 million lump sum budget in 2012.

But Poblete and Mayor Michael Rama said they will just answer the complaint once they received orders from the Ombudsman for them to submit their counter-affidavit.