Visayas Ombud orders

probe to determine who

took their ‘evidence’
by Jolene R. Bulambot
CORRESPONDENT

A t least 44 decorative lampposts

worth P9.8 million are gone.
They were removed under unclear circum-
stances from A.C. Cortes Street in Mandaue City.
Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol
yesterday ordered a fact-finding team to conduct an in-
ventory and find out who took out the dome-shaped
lampposts without permission from the anti-graft office.
The lampposts, which cost P224,000 each, serve as
“evidence” in the pending graft complaint arising from
the mutli-million-peso infrastrucure spending in Cebu
for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) Summit in January last year.
The graft cast was filed against two private contrac-
tors along with the Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu city may-
ors and their engineering staff, and seven ranking offi-
cials of the Department of Public Works and Highways
in Central Visayas (DPWH-7).
“The lampposts serve as our evidence. I am really sur-
prised. They shouldn't remove the lampposts because
they can be held responsible for removing vital evidence
without clearance from us,” Apostol said.
“There is no consent from the office of the contractor
or any government agency to remove the lampposts,” he
added.
Both the DPWH-7 and the Mandaue City govern-
ment denied removing the lampposts.
The 44 China-made lampposts were discovered miss-
ing by a team of Ombudsman investigators during an
ocular inspection yesterday.
What remains is the concrete base foundation of the
decorative lampposts.
LAMPPOSTS 35

ONLY the concrete base is left of a decorative lamppost, one of

several along A.C. Cortes Street in Mandaue City, which have dis-
appeared without notice to graft investigators.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

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