On June 25, 2020, Vice Mayor Bernard Glenn Dao-as filed a complaint for graft and corruption and grave misconduct before the Ombudsman against City Mayor Darwin Estranero due to alleged overpriced thermal scanners bought by the city at P12,000.00 each,.
Dao-as in his affidavit-complaint included Czearina Divina, sole proprietor of Empyrean Pharmaceuticals, as private respondent.
Allegedly, Estrañero and Divina acted in violation of the Price Act (R.A. No. 7581, as amended by R.A. No. 10623), the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (R.A. No. 11649) and the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. No. 3019). This is the second complaint filed by the vice mayor against the mayor based basically on the same factual milieu. .
It was further alleged that in the same complaint that Estrañero is administratively liable for knowingly entering into a contract which is grossly disadvantageous to the government.
The foregoing was earlier published by the Guru Press Cordillera based in Tabuk, authored by Leonora Lo-oy.
Some quarters, however, in the city are wondering if the complaints against the mayor were not politically motivated. Such is due to the fact that there appears to be no complaint filed against any official of the city for the alleged overpriced purchase of a parcel of land for the construction of a police station and for other purposes. This matter was investigated by the NBI and the officials of the city might claim to have been vindicated, but some residents think there was no honest vindication. If ever, such vindication, if it can be called that happens all the time in this country, which is considered one of the very corrupt in Southeast Asia.
So are the complaints politically motivated due to some failing out somewhere? It does not really matter. A counter-charge from the mayor would further put some fat into the fire which will be very good for the city and for the people in general as rotten city officials, if any,, would be exposed. Could it be all of the elected city officials? We don’t know.
As to the claim about preventively suspending the city mayor, the usual practice of the Ombudsman was to order suspension only where there was a finding of probable cause.
We will gladly publish the side of the mayor and other city officials in succeeding issues as there was no time to obtain their side on this matter. ** (The second part of this article from the acknowledgment of the Guru Press Cordillera all the way to the end was from the editor of this paper). **
