THE deal to buy fire trucks from Austria for P2.8 billion that led President Rodrigo Duterte to fire Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno over alleged irregularities will push through, the Palace said Thursday.
“It is a perfected contract and there is no temporary restraining order that prevents its implementation,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella. “The Department of the Interior and Local Government fire truck deal will proceed.”
Some 14 units of Rosenbauer fire trucks from Austria arrived at the Batangas City port earlier this week, part of the deal to purchase 76 units signed by the Aquino administration.
Abella made these pronouncements even as President Duterte said he could not believe Sueno proceeded with the purchase of the fire trucks despite the opinion of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s legal team that it was questionable.
Sueno maintained his innocence and denied any corrupt dealings even after he was removed from office, saying the Rosenbauer deal was an executive facility agreement between the Philippine and Austrian governments, and the first and second supply contracts were merely implementations of the agreement.
A former party-list lawmaker, however, has asked the Supreme Court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order to stop the delivery of reportedly overpriced Austrian fire trucks covered by a P2.8- billion supply contract.
With the arrival of the first batch of fire trucks this week, former Abakada representative Jonathan dela Cruz filed the motion seeking a TRO and a writ of prelimiary injunction earlier submitted to the Supreme Court in January.
Dela Cruz said despite the position taken by President Duterte against the supply contract with Austrian firm Rosenbauer AG for 76 units of TLF 4000 fire trucks, some officials from the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Department of the Interior and Local Government were conspiring to push through with the deal.
He noted that the Rosenbauer contract has already cost the job of Sueno, who was fired by the President for attempting to facilitate the supply agreement despite the pending Supreme Court case.
Sueno, together with his wife and other relatives, as well as officials from the DILG and BFP, traveled to Austria in January to meet with Rosenbauer officials.
“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.