A plunder complaint has been filed against former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista and several others before the Office of the Ombudsman, allegedly for illegally disbursing P263mn.
Charged along with Bautista were former city administrator Aldrin Cuna, Reynald Paul Imjada, Nolasco Fernandez and Christopher Gerard Ledesma. Fernandez was the president and chief executive officer of Green Energy Container Solutions Inc. (Gecsi) while Ledesma was the company’s representative.
“Considering the amount illegally disbursed, equalling P263,996,121.16, the respondents are…guilty of plunder as defined under Section 2 of Republic Act (RA) 7080,” said Noel Emmanuel Gascon, who filed the complaint on behalf of the city government.
RA 1080 is the “Plunder Law.”
Gascon was the internal auditor of the Quezon City government’s Internal Audit Service and audited the QC Smart City Data Infrastructure project.
The project aimed to provide a citywide broadband network by deploying free Internet base stations in villages that would provide residents free Internet access.
Based on the complaint, a purchase request dated July 15, 2017 for P318mn was issued for the project. The signatories were Cuna, supposedly as the requesting party, and Bautista.
The complaint alleged that Gecsi, the only bidder for the project, submitted a bid for P317,257,644. The Bids and Awards Committee for Goods recommended the award of the project to the company through a resolution dated June 11, 2018.
An obligation request dated June 14, 2018 was supposedly released, with Imjada as the requesting party. A Notice of Award dated June 19, 2018 was issued by Bautista in favour of Gecsi.
On June 29, 2018, the former mayor allegedly entered into a Supply and Delivery Agreement with the company for the project.
Gascon said Bautista released 90% of the funding for the project even if no services had been delivered.
Citing Section 88(1) of Presidential Decree 1445, or the “Government Auditing Code of the Philippines,” Gascon said “no payment shall be made unless the required services or supplies have been delivered in accordance with the terms of the contract and after due inspection and acceptance.”
“It bears stressing that the terms of the contract required that 40% of the project cost may only be released upon delivery and testing of the materials on site in accordance with specifications,” he added.
“As can be seen from the facts, 79% of the project cost had already been released to Gecsi by mid-July 2018, or less than a month after the contract had been executed. There is no record whatsoever of the materials being delivered and the system being accepted prior to the release of the said amount,” Gascon said.
He claimed that there was no record of any training and technology transfer before the release of the fund.
“It is clear from all the foregoing that the respondent then-public officers, in conspiracy with Gecsi, violated the law when they acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence by unlawfully releasing public funds in blatant disregard of the Government Auditing Code. Such acts by the respondents violated Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019, or the ‘Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,’’ Gascon said.
He added that Bautista and the other respondents conspired to “illegally and fraudulently” disburse the money.