The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas has directed Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella and Merryland Publishing Corp. to submit the complete expenses or cost for the acquisition of computers amounting to P38.8 million during a clarificatory hearing Friday of the criminal and administrative cases filed by the late City Legal Officer Allan Zamora.

City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan yesterday said Zamora had filed the case against Puentevella, Merryland and the Department of Education for the purchase of alleged overpriced computers and IT packages for different public schools in Bacolod City amounting to P38,835,720.

He said the Ombudsman, in order to make a better assessment of the case so they can call for another clarificatory hearing, also requested the respondents to provide the contract between the supplier and DepEd within 30 days from Nov. 20.

He said the 41 computers costs P400,000 per unit which is only equivalent to P16.4 million.

Bayatan said Puentevella failed to justify or account for the P38.8 million computers and IT packages from his Priority Development Assistance Fund for 2002, 2004 and 2005.

His PDAF amounting to P38.8 million could have acquired 97 computer units and there was an obvious unaccounted 56 units of computers and IT packages amounting to P22,400,000, he said.

Puentevella, in his counter affidavit, said “It is his God's wish and desire that they will be his legacy worth emulating and to be echoed in the history after his term by the people.”

He said he is for the welfare of his fellowmen and that he got elected not to enrich himself nor pride in the wealth of the state.

Puentevella said he would not have been elected for a third term if he had not been doing good in office.

Bayatan said the computers were not only overpriced but were acquired in a very anomalous manner.

He said that during the clarificatory hearing, the respondents admitted that it did not undergo public bidding.

Bayatan said the representative of Merryland made a defense that there was no need for a public bidding because it is an exclusive distributor.

However, they could not present receipts to support the P22 million worth of unaccounted computer units, he said.

Only Garcia and his lawyer Galeleo Angeles and the representative of Puentevella, Adelaida Rendon, appeared at the hearing, he added.

Secretary to the Mayor Vicente Petierre III disclosed during the hearing that the computer units were returned to their boxes since they were not functional, Bayatan said.

Petierre added that based on an investigation they conducted in the schools, the computers were never used by the students and were not user-friendly. Some were used by office staffs of teachers for administrative purposes, he added.

Bayatan said the Ombudsman has tentatively scheduled another clarificatory hearing on the case in February 2010.*CGS

back to top