12th ASEAN Summit

CEBU CITY—Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia sued the top official of the Ombudsman-Visayas for alleged bias in the investigation of irregularities in the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) and alleged overprice of lampposts installed for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit.

Garcia filed administrative and criminal charges against acting Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago for allegedly showing bias in the CICC inquiry.

Garcia, through her counsel, also asked Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to assign a non-Cebuano graft investigator to handle the fact-finding inquiry and to order Santiago to inhibit from the case.

The local antigraft office is conducting a fact-finding investigation after a local contractor filed a complaint alleging the CICC was overpriced by at least P150 million and that the bidding was highly irregular.

Garcia accused Santiago of partiality and bad faith in handling the CICC investigation.

She said Santiago violated Rule 5 of the antigraft law, which prohibits graft investigators from issuing premature statements on cases being investigated until the inquiry is completed and a resolution has been issued.

Garcia’s complaint stemmed from Santiago’s pronouncements in a local daily where Santiago was quoted as saying “they are already on guard,” which reportedly referred to provincial officials linked to the alleged overpricing of the CICC.

Garcia told reporters that Santiago already pre-judged the case by showing bias and partiality as an investigator.

Santiago, however, refused to comment on Garcia’s allegations saying she would rather wait for action from the Ombudsman’s central office.

Lawyer Pablo John Garcia, the governor’s brother and legal consultant, also asked Ombudsman Gutierrez to place Santiago under preventive suspension.

Garcia, eight other provincial government officials and an architect are facing a plunder case after contractor Cris Saavedra filed a plunder case against them.

In his complaint with the Ombudsman, Saavedra linked Garcia and the others to the alleged overpricing of the CICC.

He alleged that the CICC project was divided into six to eight smaller contracts “to get away with normal bidding procedures required in all government projects.”

Saavedra also named Cebu Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez, provincial bids and awards committee members provincial treasurer Roy Salubre, provincial engineer Adolfo Quiroga, project engineer Ernesto Biernes, budget officer Emmy Hingoyon, provincial engineer Euly Pilayre, provincial lawyer Mariano Martinquilla and Ed Habin and architect-consultant Manuel Guanzon.

Saavedra said the provincial government bid out the CICC foundation works but divided the other project components into several contracts.

He attached to his complaint several vouchers and lists of expenses, memorandum receipts, official receipts, disbursement vouchers reflecting an aggregate amount of P537.6 million, covering 17 items.

“The complainant is convinced that the Cebu provincial government funds of not less than P50 million were misappropriated, misused or malversed through a pattern of overt or criminal acts indicative of overall unlawful scheme or conspiracy among Cebu provincial officials and the contractors,” Saavedra said.

Garcia denied the allegations and promised to present a public accounting of the CICC expenses today to refute speculations surrounding the controversial project.