BAGUIO CITY- Mayor Benjamin Magalong has filed with the City Prosecutors Office graft cases against officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Baguio City District Engineering Office (BCDEO) on Friday, July 1.
Named respondents were District Engineer Rene Zarate, Assistant District Engineer Glenn Reyes, and five other engineers and their administrative officers.
Mayor Magalong said the respondents allegedly violated Section 3 of the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against officials of the DPWH-Baguio City District Engineering Office (BCDEO).
The mayor subscribed his affidavit-complaint under oath at the City Prosecutor’s Office in preparation for filing with the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City.
The case stemmed from a DPWH BCDEO project in Baguio City where materials used were substandard.
"Basically the content of the complaint is entering into a contract which is disadvantageous to the government and we will file many more against BCDEO since we have discovered many projects that are substandard and defective," Magalong said.
According to Magalong, he is saddened that despite the successive meetings and warnings given to the district office, ‘they are, however, very consistent with substandard projects.’
He said he wanted this to be a test case for a government office that filed such a complaint against another government office to show that the local government unit is serious in stopping corruption.
He added that they are also preparing evidence in preparation for filing more complaints related to other projects including the buildings of the Department of Education which he also considered substandard.
“The DPWH has already sent their people here so that they can really inspect the projects and they really found that they are substandard and defective, so after eight months we still don't see any concrete action and we can no longer tolerate such corruption. We will start filing cases," declared Magalong.