A municipal vice mayor from Batangas is facing another complaint of graft and misconduct before the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged undue injury to the government by giving a private firm unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in 2014.
In an 11-page complaint, former Sangguniang Bayan board member Rolando Tamayo also urged the Ombudsman to place San Pascual Vice Mayor Antonio Dimayuga and former and incumbent board members Maria Brenda Dimayuga, wife of the accused; Davis Gregory Fider; Mara Cassandra Fernandez; Efren Reyes; Norman Dimatactac; Moises Chavez, and Reyshanne Joy Marquez.
Tamayo accused Dimayuga, then the town mayor, of allowing the construction and operation of the Water Supply Distribution System Aquadata Inc. without a public bidding.
“The San Pascual water supply and distribution system was a local government infrastructure project that should have undergone a competitive public bidding or any of the recognized mode of public-private partnership, such as the build-operate-transfer, build-lease-transfer, build-own-operate, concession agreement, joint venture and others,” the complaint read.
On July 14, 2014, Aquadata submitted a letter signed by its president, Herbert Tan, to members of the municipal council, offering to construct deep well-pumping stations in barangays Sto. Nino and Laurel in San Pascual.
The council endorsed the project proposal to Dimayuga to allow the construction of a water supply system in 2014.
On Dec. 14, 2014, Aquadata was given a mayor’s permit to start the construction.
“After a few months, I learned that the franchise given to Aquadata did not undergo competitive public bidding despite the assurance of the respondents,” Tamayo said.
“Respondents intentionally failed to do this and instead, unilaterally granted Aquadata a blanket authority and privilege to construct and operate San Pascual’s water supply and distribution system on mere SB resolutions and the MoA they issued,” he added.