BACOLOD City – There was a “technical malversation” of the city’s disaster fund during former mayor Monico Puentevella’s term, according to City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan.
Bayatan said the 10 patrol cars that are now being used by the 10 police stations under the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) were purchased using the fund from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO).
“According to the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, the [CDRRMO] budget is specifically for disaster use. [It must be] used for the actual happening of a disaster or [in] preparation for a disaster which may be imminent,” Bayatan explained.
The CDRRMO fund was used to purchase the patrol cars even if there was no disaster or imminent disaster at the time, he added.
Bayatan’s statement came after Executive Assistant Samuel Montoyo Sr. on March 27 lodged criminal and administrative complaints against Puentevella, eight former members of the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and former supervising administrative officer Roger Dulano, among others, before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas.
The BAC former members include Jerome Solinap, Victor Emmanuel Espina, Maria Agueda Trinidad de la Torre, Ephraem Hechanova, Mae Cuaycong, and Maximino Sillo.
Montoyo accused them of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 on the Civil Service Commission over the patrol car acquisition.
Bayatan has assured the BCPO that the filing of the case will not affect them using the patrol vehicles.
“It is not about the vehicles. It’s about how they were acquired,” said Bayatan.
The city legal officer added that the purchase of the patrol cars also violated the rules of the bidding process, specifically the mandatory seven-day period of publication and the 12-day period of submission of the bids including the one-day pre-bid conference./PN
