Officials clueless on where the P20M released for mothballed housing project went
Another multi-million question with regard to the city government's anomalous housing project in Pavia, Iloilo cropped up in yesterday's committee hearing of the Sangguniang Panglungsod committee on infrastructures headed by City Councilor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
This after it was learned that Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) already released P80 million for the housing project which is part of the P130 million loan acquired by the city government through a bond flotation scheme.
The Commission on Audit (COA) earlier reported that the city has paid a total amount of P60,583,684.14 to ABE when the project stopped sometime in 2002.
Lawyer Romeo Gerochi, who attended the committee hearing, raised the issue on where the remaining P20 million went.
His question was relative to the statement of Edgar Rico, of the PVB that the bank has already released P80 million out of the P130 million.
Gerochi is also the complainant in the criminal case filed before the Ombudsman Visayas relative to the anomaly-ridden housing project against several city officials including Mayor Jerry Treñas.
Gerochi directly raised his queries to City Treasurer Katherine Tingson to find out where the money went.
Tingson, however, told the body that she was not yet the city treasurer when the said amount was released.
Tingson said she has no idea about the fund as she only replaced retired City Treasurer Romeo Manikan. She did not elaborate further on the unaccounted millions of pesos on the city's coffers.
Moreover, Gerochi questioned the action of the city government and the City Engineer's Office in revising the contracted amount without the approval of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
The approved contracted amount for the housing project is P125 million. In the revised contract amount, the project cost reached to P137,787,499.56. No prior notice was made before such computation was made by the City Engineers Office.
Gerochi also questioned the veracity of the COA evaluation report as it did not contain the losses incurred at the housing site. The report could have had contained all the home fixtures and materials which were stolen.
The evaluation report only contained the total cost of deficiencies and substandard materials used by the contractor in constructing some 100 housing units at the project site.
Meanwhile, Mabilog told City Hall reporters that his committee will not deal on the issue raised by Gerochi saying it is already beyond the mandate of his committee.
Mabilog said it is the committee on appropriation which should act and investigate the alleged missing P20 million.
He said his committee's investigation is confined only on whether to pay the remaining P14,244,203.43 to ABE as per the recommendation of the COA and the City Legal Office (CLO).
After a series of hearings, the committee will submit their recommendation before the city council. The members of the council will then decide on whether to adapt or reject the committee's recommendation.
The committee on justice and legal matters chaired by former city councilor and now Representative Raul Gonzalez, Jr. also conducted an investigation regarding the Pavia housing project years ago.
Gonzalez's investigation was an offshoot of the revelation made by subcontractor Rudy Gonzalez on the use of substandard materials. He made public of what he knew after the ABE contractor Alex Trinidad failed to pay him of his contracted work.
Gonzalez's group came up with a recommendation to press charges on former city councilors and other members of the city council who were at the time still serving the city council during the conduct of the investigation. The same recommendation was rejected by the city council.
The same committee report was sent to the Ombudsman Visayas for action. Some of the previous councilors were even asked to submit their counter affidavits regarding the allegations on their participation from the time of the approval of the loan, approval of the project design among others.
Since then, nothing was heard on who are liable for the multi-million anomalies at housing project which turned into a white elephant.