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Friday, Agusto 4, 2017
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MANILA – Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the filing of multiple counts of graft and falsification charges against former vice president Jejomar Binay Sr. and son, former Makati City mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr.
The Binays and other Makati City officials were accused of conspiring to rig the procurement processes for the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School building project along Kalayaan Avenue in Makati City.
Morales indicted Binay Sr. with four counts of graft and three counts of falsification of public documents. Binay Jr. also faces four counts of graft and three counts of falsification, an Ombudsman news release showed.
Also accused were Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairpersons Marjorie De Veyra and Eleno Mendoza Jr.; BAC members Pio Kenneth Dasal, Lorenza Amores, Ulysess Orienza, Gerardo San Gabriel, and Mario Badillo; BAC Secretariat members Giovanni Condes, Manolito Uyaco, Norman Flores, and Ralph Liberato; Rodel Nayve of the BAC Technical Working Group; city accountants Leonila Querijero, Cecilio Lim III and Raydes Pestaño; and city cashier Nelia Barlis.
Criminal charges were also ordered filed against contractors Virginia Garcia of Infiniti Architectural Works and Efren Canlas and Julius Ramos of Hilmarc’s Construction Corp.
Moreover, the Ombudsman found Binay Jr. guilty of serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Dasal, Amores, Badillo, Querijero, Barlis, Lim, Condes, Flores, Orienza, Uyaco, San Gabriel, Mendoza Jr., Liberato, and Pestaño were found administratively liable, too.
The accused followed an “utterly flawed procurement process,” Morales said.
When the bidding process for Phase 1 started on Dec. 5, 2007, “no architectural design and engineering plans were provided to prospective bidders to apprise them of the details of the construction to be made,” she said.
“The records are also bereft of a showing that there were completed architectural design and engineering plans before the publication of the invitation for Phase 2,” Morales added. “This logically shows that the public biddings were nothing but a sham.”
The Ombudsman stressed that the project for a 10-story building complete with a four-story dormitory was completed merely as a 10-storey building.
CONSULTANCY
On Sept. 26, 2007, then mayor Binay Sr. entered into a P17.37-million architectural and engineering (A&E) consultancy services contract with Infiniti for the building design.
But several irregularities were noted – “the unjustified resort to negotiated procurement instead of competitive bidding, noncompliance with the required posting of the Invitation to Bid, and several misrepresentations regarding the alleged bid negotiations, submission and opening of bids” – the Ombudsman said.
Moreover, the project “did not provide for a timeline or period within which the contractor must complete its services,” it said.
Seven companies were invited to submit proposals during the negotiation conference on Sept. 18, 2007, the respondents claimed.
But witnesses from two of the architectural firms that allegedly joined denied participating and submitting proposals for the project, the Ombudsman said.
Six other purported bidders tendered bids in excess of the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC), and only Infiniti submitted a bid within the ABC, investigators found out.
CONSTRUCTION
The respondents also rigged the procurement processes for the construction, which was divided into six phases, from 2008 to 2013, all of which were awarded to Hilmarc’s Construction at a total net cost of P1.33 billion, the Ombudsman said.
“This was made possible by respondents, acting in conspiracy, through the falsification of bidding documents, suppression of information to prospective bidders, and undue haste in the award of the contracts,” it said.
The chief operating officer of JBros Construction, an alleged bidder, “[disowned] the signatures appearing above the name on the bid documents” they purportedly submitted for Phase 1, said the Ombudsman.
Investigators also uncovered that the alleged publications of the Invitation to Bid in phases 1, 2, 4, and 5 were fake – certified true copies of the issues of Balita obtained from the National Library confirmed that no invitations to bid were published.
“Hilmarc’s was placed on higher footing than any potential bidders who, by lack of publication of the [invitation] in newspapers of general circulation and by the limited time of posting in the PhilGEPS, City’s website or conspicuous places, were deprived of sufficient chance to participate in the biddings,” said Morales. “In fact, no other bidder participated in the public biddings for phases 2, 4, 5, and 6.”/PN
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