Arturo Radaza
Graft charges were filed in the Sandiganbayan against Arturo Radaza, former mayor and congressman of Lapu-Lapu City, and 19 others for the 2005 purchase of computers for public high schools.
The 470 units delivered by Kein Enterprises for P23.5 million were found to be overpriced by more than double their value.
The company’s manager and proprietor Jannet Valencia was included in the graft charges.
The case stems from a complaint filed eight years ago by the Coralpoint Educational Foundation Inc. of Efrain Pelaez Jr. before the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.
Arturo’s wife Paz, who is the current Lapu-Lapu city mayor, yesterday confirmed the filing of the case sometime in October but said she didn’t have the details on hand.
She said the family’s lawyers in Manila will handle a formal response and prepare their defense in the trial to follow.
Paz answered Cebu Daily News queries by phone from the public cemetery in barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City where she was attending Mass for All Souls Day last night.
State prosecutors said the computers were overpriced by more than P12 million.
Arturo and his co-accused were charged with one count of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) or giving undue advantage.
In 2011, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the indictment of the former Lapu-Lapu city mayor and others involved in the purchase.
Those presently charged before the Sandiganbayan are the City Schools Superintendent Serena Uy, the former Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairman Vincent Joseph Lim (now deceased), the current BAC chair Teodulo Ybanez, Fernando Tagaan Jr. as vice chairman and BAC members Michael Dignos, Victoria Andoy, and Elena Pacaldo.
Also charged were Rogelio Veloso as head of the Technical Working Group (TWG) and members Cipirano Flores, Sharon Baguio, Buenaventura Igot, Jerico Mercado and Maribeth Sorono, Administrative Aide III Marita Guiao of the Procurement Section, and Inspection Committee members Cleofe Solis, Leandro Dante, Ernesto Imbong, and Rogaciano Tampus.
They were accused of giving unwarranted benefits to Kein Enterprises and causing undue injury to Lapu-Lapu City with the computer deal.
Arturo Radaza as mayor approved the local Department of Education’s proposal buy the computers at P49,950 per unit.
Kein Enterprises won the bidding, but the Visayas Office of the Ombudsman later found that the computers were “of inferior quality” and that the prevailing value of the computer models was only P23,100 each.
Graft investigators said the 470 computers should have cost P10.857 million instead of P23,476 million or a price difference of P12.6 million.
“The disparity of P26,850 (P49,950 less P23,100) or a mark-up of 116 percent from P23,100 is far beyond the 10 percent which is allowed under Sec.3.1 of Commission on Audit (COA) Memorandum No. 97-012 s. 1997,” the Ombudsman said. “It is clear that respondents acted with manifest partiality for Ken Enterprises and with evident bad faith against the government,” it added.
Pelaez ran in 2010 and 2013 against Paz Radaza for the Lapu-Lapu mayorship under the Liberal Party. He lost both elections but kept up his criticism of the Radaza administration for alleged corrpution.
In an interview in 2011, Arturo Radaza, who was already a congressman, said the complaint was politically motivated.
He said the computers allocated for the city’s high schools were bought at 2005 market prices and weren’t overpriced.
At the time, he said “The Ombudsman might have compared it with a price years later after 2005. That is why the respondents or the members of the Bids and Awards Committee filed a motion for reconsideration.”
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