Ex-mayor's son files graft raps
Top officials of the Municipality of Tigbauan starting off from Mayor Myrna Torres will face anew "ghosts" from the past courtesy of three municipal infrastructure projects deemed as "ghost projects."
This, after a former mayor's son officially filed a complaint before the People's Graftwatch of Iloilo and sought Ombudsman action.
In a two-paged letter complaint obtained by The News Today (TNT), Winifred Ledesma laid down what he said were "three government projects that are highly irregular, illegal and anomalous contrary to law and to the disadvantage of us, the taxpaying public."
Forming part of Ledesma's evidences were at least 30 sets of documents including findings from the Commission on Audit (COA), town's records of the questioned transactions and charge invoices that showed advance purchase and delivery of materials.
"The questioned projects are referred to as Findings no. 12 and 13 of the COA Comments and Observations summarized as "Three projects with similar Program of Works and Amounts," broken down as follow -- (1) Construction of concrete fence at the Public Market P153,860.00, (2) Construction of concrete fence at Trompeta Drive -- P153,860.00 and (3) Construction of concrete fence at the Municipal Slaughterhouse P153,860.00," the complaint went.
Excerpts of the COA findings stated, "For calendar year 2005, the municipality undertook three (3) projects with similar program of works. The projects were funded by 2004 continuing appropriations and by 20 development fund for 2005. The projects have identical programs of works including amounts, labor and materials components. The public biddings of materials for the construction of fences at the municipal slaughterhouse and at Trompeta Drive were conducted on July 5, 2005 and July 14, 2005, respectively.
"Purchase Order for the concrete fence at municipal slaughterhouse was issued on July 7, 2005 while the purchase order for the concrete fence at Trompeta Drive was unnumbered and undated. Charge invoices were both dated June 21, 2005 which openly disregarded the function of the Bid and Awards Committee since materials were already procured before the public bidding. Work on the projects began and ended simultaneously on June 13-18, 2005 and June 20-27, 2005. The execution of the project was done ahead of the procurement of materials which clearly indicates that the irregularities in the procurement transaction were material with inconsistencies highly technical."
In an interview, Ledesma said he has since moved to seek government action and intervention in the affairs of Tigbauan. What makes matter worse, he added, was the no-show of Mayor Torres in the town with much of the services and administration left to her aides.
To note, the lady mayor is widely known to frequent Metro Manila and would usually hold office in her residence.
In a month's time, Ledesma said it would be a "miracle" to have a full week with Mayor Torres in Tigbauan, more so in the town hall.
"All of these have to stop. We are wasting precious and hard-earned people's tax money. We are confident that the People's Graftwatch can help us help save Tigbauan," he ended.
Ombudsman for the Visayas Director Virginia Palanca-Santiago earlier sought the town's records of government projects and transactions that were subject of a privilege speech of one councilor back in December.
A former ally of the lady mayor, Councilor Romeo Ledesma's emotional speech made it in the news and was used as among the basis for an investigation in the Tigbauan Municipal Council. The anti-graft body took interest thereafter with the request then made for the COA to submit all pertinent documents of the town's expenses and financial dealings.