A PETITIONER who earlier asked the Supreme Court to nullify a P2.8-billion fire trucks contract said Monday he will file graft charges against the officials defying President Rodrigo Duterte’s order that the deal should not push through pending the case’s resolution.
Leo Romero is the counsel in the petition filed last year with the high court questioning the supply deal with Rosenbauer International AG for 76 units of TLF 4000 fire trucks.
He said he will proceed with his plan to file graft charges against certain officials of the Interior department and the Bureau of Fire Protection, including Interior Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs Epimaco Densing III for their “brazen attempts” to push through with the Rosenbauer deal.
The supply contract with the Austrian company earlier prompted President Duterte to fire then Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno over alleged irregularities.
But Densing defended the Rosenbauer contract, saying it was a government-to-government transaction covered by a 23-year loan.
“These culpable officials will also face administrative cases for countermanding the direct orders of the President,” Romero said.
“Money is really changing. It seems there is a well-entrenched group or clique in the government that is for this supply contract. Money can really do wonders”•it can make you disobey the President.”
Romero said BFP Director Bobby Baruelo issued Order Number COM-2017-018 on March 17 that created an Inspection and Acceptance Committee for the fire trucks.
But Senior Supt. Jorge Fariñas, whom Baruelo appointed as IAC chairman, had reportedly resigned as BFP director for Logistics as he refused to take on the committee chairmanship for the Rosenbauer fire trucks.
Romero said Fariñas, who has requested to be transferred to BFP-Region 3, was reportedly being forced by Baruelo to inspect and accept the fire trucks in question that were stored at the Batangas City port after they arrived in the country on April 18.
Romero also called the attention of Palace spokesman Ernesto Abella for “countermanding the position of the President” after Abella said the contract was a perfected one and that there was no temporary restraining order to prevent its implementation.
“I don’t know if Abella’s line is the official Palace line. But it certainly runs counter against the position of the President,” Romero said.
He said he will send a letter to the President on Monday to seek clarification on the official policy on the supply contract.
“We just want some assurance from the President that Abella is wrong,” Romero said.
“We want to adhere to the President’s quest for a government that is free of graft and corruption, but Abella appears to be flip-flopping and this is dampening our spirits.”
Earlier, former Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz asked the Supreme Court to stop the delivery of the reportedly overpriced Austrian fire trucks.
“President Duterte perceived and smelled a first whiff of graft and corruption in the acts of former DILG Secretary Sueno whom he unceremoniously dismissed…But it appears that nothing in the way will deter, prevent and stop the culpable parties from fleecing moneys from public coffers,” Dela Cruz said in his petition.