The Office of the Ombudsman found Officer-in-Charge (OIC) District Engineer Haydee Alunan and OIC-Assistant District Engineer Elsie Sabay, both from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), 3rd Negros Occidental Engineering District, guilty of Grave Misconduct in connection with the anomalies in the rehabilitation of the Mabua bridge in Barangay Poblacion and Bagambayan bridge in Barangay Tiling, both in Cauayan, Negros Occidental.
Alunan and Sabay were ordered dismissed from the service with the accessory penalties of cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, perpetual disqualification from holding public office, and bar from taking the civil service examination. The Decision added that in the event of separation from the service, the penalty of dismissal is convertible to a fine equivalent to their one-year salary.
The Ombudsman also found probable cause to charge Alunan and Sabay with two counts of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019).
Investigation found that on 10 February 2014, respondents commenced the implementation of the rehabilitation of the bridges which were scheduled to be completed on 29 June 2014, by issuing Notices to Proceed in favor of OPELL Construction and Development Corporation.
During the ocular inspection on 03 December 2015, the Field Investigation Office discovered that both bridges were unfinished.
Alunan admitted that there was delay in the completion of the projects but claimed that the delay was caused by intervening factors such as the removal of the water pipelines attached to the bridge railings, the relocation of the electrical post, and heavy rains and flooding.
The Ombudsman found that “there was an unreasonable delay of at least one year and six months in the completion of the projects [as] an undisputable fact established by the evidence on record which respondents deliberately set aside despite delay in the completion of work by more than 380%.”
“During the implementation stage, respondents allowed the contractor to continue working on the project despite poor performance/accomplishment and unreasonable delay of the contractor in the projects. They allowed the contractor to collect full payment thereafter with understated penalty/liquidated damages. As shown in the Disbursement Vouchers, the contractor was not made to pay for the unreasonable delay of each project of at least 562 days. Thus, the amount of liquidated damages was apparently understated and respondents clearly gave unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference to the contractor in violation of law,” stated the Ombudsman Resolution.
Misconduct is the unlawful behavior or gross negligence by a public officer. The misconduct is grave if it involves the elements of corruption, willful intent to violate the law or to disregard established rules.
On the other hand, Section 3(e) of R.A. 3019 prohibits public officials from causing any undue injury to any party including the government or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence. ###