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Graft charges were filed Wednesday before the Office
of the Ombudsman against Department of Education Secretary Jesli
Lapus and six others over an alleged noodles scam.
In an 11-page
complaint-affidavit, businessman and whistleblower Prudencio Quido
Jr. charged the Lapus group with violation of Republic Act 3019, or
the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, by “causing undue injury
to any party, including the government; giving undue disadvantage in
favor of or discriminating against any other interested party; and
entering . . . into any contract or transaction manifestly and
grossly disadvantageous to the [government].”
Lapus downplayed the complaint of
Quido, whom he described as a “losing bidder” for a P427-million
noodles procurement contract.
“Ang tanong, worth it ba ang
kaso nila? Wala namang procurement o kontrata dahil kinansela na
namin ito [The question is, is it worth it for the complainant to go
to the Ombudsman? There was no procurement made or contract signed
because we had canceled the procurement],” he said during an
interview.
The other respondents from the
Education department are Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns
Thelma Santos, Undersecretary and Chairman of the Bids and Awards
Committee (BAC) Teodosio Sangil, Committee Vice Chairman and lawyer
Macur Marohombsar and Committee members Dr. Demetria Manuel and
Nanette Moransin.
Another respondent is businessman
Alex Billan, the president of Jeverps Manufacturing Corp., the
supplier of the noodles for the Education department’s feeding
program for public-school pupils.
The Education department
initiated the feeding program in 2004 that would provide instant
noodles to public elementary schools in select regions. The program
was to continue until 2009. It aimed to address nutritional needs of
school children as part of the government’s hunger-mitigation
initiatives in 13 food-poor provinces.
Millions lost
The government was said to have
lost P170 million in the contract with Jeverps for the
implementation of the feeding program in 2007.
The complainant asked Ombudsman
Maria Merceditas Gutierrez to file the necessary case before the
anti-graft court Sandiganbayan against the seven respondents.
On November 13, 2007, Jeverps
made a winning bid of P284,127,840 for the supply of “Fortified
Noodles with Fresh Eggs” and on February 27, 2009, it made a
winning bid of P427,215,360 for the supply of “Fortified Noodles
with Fresh Eggs and Malunggay.”
Lapus was referring to the bid of
P427,215,360 when he said that he had scrapped the P427-million
noodles procurement contract.
Complainant Quido said that when
the biddings were conducted, “there was only one participating
bidder/supplier which has been favored at the very outset and this
was Jeverps and no other.”
“As such, the awards of the
said contracts to Jeverps were highly anomalous, fraudulent and,
worse, most disadvantageous to the interest of the government,”
the complaint said.
It added that the cost of a pack
of noodles for the implementation of the feeding program in 2007 was
“highly unconscionable as it was purchased at P18, more or less,
when the price commanded in the market was only P4.50, more or less,
hence the government had lost the amount of P170 million, more or
less.”
The 2007 feeding program required
the supply of 19 million packs of “fortified noodles.”
Jeverps was also accused by Quido
of highly deceitful labeling by tagging the noodles “Fortified
Instant Noodles with Fresh Eggs” when the noodles did not contain
eggs but flour.
Charges denied
The Education department also on
Wednesday denied the complainant’s claim. It said that the noodles
had been certified to contain vitamins and minerals by SGS Phil
Inc., a laboratory accredited by the Bureau of Food and Drugs and a
member of Societe Generale de Surveillance, an international company
that provides inspection, verification, testing and certification
services of goods.
During a Senate investigation, it
was found that since 2004 until 2009 when six feeding programs were
implemented, the contract with one and the same bidder—Jeverps—reached
P750 million.
--Jomar Canlas And James Konstantin Galvez
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