Solicitor General Jose Calida on Friday expressed vindication after the Department of Justice cleared him of a possible conflict of interest arising from the contract between the DoJ and his family’s security agency.
Calida made the statement after Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that the DoJ’s contract with his family’s Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency is “aboveboard.”
“I am not surprised with DoJ Sec. Menardo Guevarra’s conclusion that there is no irregularity and conflict of interest in Vigilant’s contract with DoJ,” Calida said in a statement.
Calida said the DoJ’s findings should put an end to malicious allegations against him.
“He [Sec. Guevarra] found the bidding process and contract to be above board. This should put to rest the malicious speculations against my wife’s business and my integrity,” the Solicitor General added.
Calida is facing investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman after a complaint was filed against him for conflict of interests due to the multi-million peso government contracts bagged by Vigilant.
In an interview, Guevarra said that as far as the DoJ is concerned, the contract with Calida’s company is valid.
“Of course I cannot speak with the other agencies with which Solgen’s company dealt but as far as the DoJ is concerned we looked into our records,” Guevarra said.
“I examined all the records pertaining to the procurement and all of these were regular on their face,” he added.
The Secretary said that Vigilant was chosen by the DoJ for the security contract after undergoing the required public bidding.
“Because this is a public bidding and all we need to comply with are the pertinent regulations under the Government Procurement Reform Act. And all of these were followed, the start of the bidding up to the end,” he said.
Of the security firms that joined the bidding, the Secretary noted that Vigilant had the “lowest and responsive bid among so many among a number of bidders.”