AT least eight officials of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) are facing a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly demanding kickback from the contractor of the airport’s security-fence project.
The complainant, Crisologo Saavedra Jr., asked the Ombudsman to investigate MCIAA Engineering Department Acting Head Achilles Ponce and International Terminal Operations Division Acting Head William Sabado, among others.
Saavedra said he has personal knowledge of the alleged demand. It was reportedly Ponce who called him and informed him that Sabado allegedly demanded for and subsequently received kickback from the contractor and that Ponce reportedly became furious that Sabado kept the money for himself.
Sabado allegedly received P800,000 and Saavedra claimed the contractor’s project manager allegedly admitted in front of other witnesses that he remitted the money to Sabado’s bank account.
Sabado just laughed the allegations off, as well as reports he purchased a new car and a condominium.
He said he acquired the house and car through loans, adding he acquired the house in 2014, two years before the fencing project started in 2016.
Sabado also said his transfer to another division was not because Ponce got mad at him for allegedly not sharing the kickback.
He said he was moved to another division because of mistakes in the project cost committed by his subordinate. As division head, it was he the MCIAA Board sanctioned.
Like Sabado, Ponce denied Saavedra’s allegations and that he called Saavedra up.
“Kickback is a serious allegation. If he has proof, he has to prove it,” Ponce said in the local dialect.
Ponce confirmed recommending Sabado’s transfer to another division as a sanction for lapses he committed at work, not because of the alleged P800,000 kickback.
Sabado said it should have been the contractor who filed the complaint—not Saavedra—who has no personality in the case.
“Why ask for a kickback when the contractor is even losing in the P28 million?” he said.
The Approved Budget for the Contract was P28,265,289.60 and the bidding was participated by ARN Builders Inc., RA Seville Builders and Mindanao Rock on June 30, 2016.
The winning bid of Mindanao Rock was P28,214,282. The same amount is the contract amount.
Variation 1, dated June 6, granted the request for time extension of Mindanao Rock of 60 days due to heavy rains as supported by Pag-Asa data.
Variation 2, dated July 7, was issued with a Negative Variation (deductive) due to the unworkable length of the fence. The original contract amount of P28,214,282 was reduced to P20,870,721.02.
“Our Engineering Department is undergoing punch listing, where each item of the project is being evaluated and tested. The contractor Mindanao Rock was already informed that MCIAA would only pay those items that are within the project specifications and in accordance to standards. This is to protect the interest of the government,” MCIAA Assistant General Manager Glenn Napuli said.
Napuli said the contractor was informed the MCIAA would only pay for the items within the project specifications and in accordance to standards “to protect the interest of the government.”
Prior to Saavedra’s complaint, an anonymous letter complaint from someone who claimed to be working with MCIAA also accused the MCIAA officials of the same infractions.
The anonymous complaint also mentioned the June 2016 bidding for the Repair and Rehabilitation of the Airport Landing Lighting System, which was awarded to Evercon Construction, the alleged favored contractor of Ponce.
“Please duces tecum the bidding records of the Evercon Contract, on the Airport Landing Lighting System. Ponce is hiding these documents from being exposed because Ponce is controlling the project and has received multimillion kickback,” the letter complaint read.
Napuli confirmed some attached documents came from his office and were given to the contractor.
“So it is confirmed the complaint came from the contractor who got mad that we reduced the contract amount and we don’t pay the sub-standard work,” Napuli said.
Ponce denied allegations he hid the documents on the bidding for the lighting system. He said every project passed through a post-audit procedure by the Commission on Audit.
“Why should I hide when these are public documents at the Bids and Awards Committee?” Ponce added.