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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, January 6, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A construction supply company wants the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to investigate the city government for not paying its dues.
Penjan Builders and Supply supplied materials for the rehabilitation of damaged unpaved roads in the barangays.
It has been nine months since the city government was supposed to pay the company, which holds office at the Doña Juliana Subdivision, said personnel Antonio Wong, Edgar Cadagat and Nemesio Demafiles.
They wrote DILG secretary Ismael Sueno on Jan. 2 saying they delivered “aggregate base materials and volcanic soil” under a contract that city hall under then mayor Monico Puentevella awarded to Penjan.
“We are prejudiced by the actions of certain city officials under now Mayor Evelio Leonardia, specifically Executive Assistant Eduardo Ravena and Secretary to the Mayor Atty. Edward Joseph Cuansing,” they said.
They accused Ravena and Cuansing of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Anti-Red Tape Law.
On Dec. 7, 2016, they met with Ravena, Cuansing, company manager Abner Notarte, Bids and Awards Committee chair Goldwyn Nifras, Executive Assistant Federico Guanzon, and six other long-unpaid suppliers and contractors, the Penjan personnel said.
They said they discussed, among others, a discrepancy in the awarding of the contract.
The local officials sought to clarify the matter with the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) for fear of liability with the Commission on Audit and possible graft charges, said the complainants.
But they heard nothing from the local officials a week after the latter went to the GPPB in Manila, they said.
The discrepancy was not immediately clear as of this writing.
The Penjan personnel told Sueno they were “convinced of the unique resoluteness of President Rodrigo Duterte to exterminate government corruption.”
“We raised this urgent appeal to hear us not because of pecuniary concern but, more essentially, for possible constitutional implication on our right [against] deprivation of property without due process…and unlawful impairment of contact with nothing except fear of political backlash,” they said.
They affixed in their complaint documents, including a purchase order dated March 23, 2016, as proof that Penjan was awarded a P3,774,000 contract./PN
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