DAVAO CITY, Philippines (March 20) — The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal from service of Lingig Municipal Mayor over over P18.9 “ghost” projects in his town.
Lingig, Surigaro del Sur Municipal Mayor Roberto Luna Jr. was found guilty of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty over P18.9-million worth communication equipment from Philflex Trading and General Merchandise.
In an order dated March 2, 2017, the anti-graft body found that Luna caused the purchased of communication equipment in 2007 through direct contracting of 36 sets of SENAO SN 6108 long range radio/telephone with one mother base, with nine programmable handsets, 10 battery charges and 10 chargeable batteries.
Based on record, Luna also bought telephone jackets, a connector, one umbrella type antenna with cable, 10 operating manuals and 35 sets SENAO SN 568 super long range cordless radio/telephone double base with cable and umbrella type antenna.
Investigation revealed that such purchase did went though a legal government procurement procedure,
“No public bidding was conducted for the multimillion peso pork barrel project.”
The fund used for the purchase was taken against the 2007b Congressional Initiative Fund of former Representative Peter Paul Jed falcon.
Aside from failure to bid, the Ombudsman found that such equipment was not delivered, documents lacking but still Luna caused the payment.
The Commission on Audit issued two notices of disallowance in 2011.
Luna was ordered dismissed from office and meter penalties over and above the cancellation of his eligibility, forfeiture of his retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Leave a Reply