The issue stems from the release of an audio recording allegedly of Carcar Mayor Patrick Barcenas discussing accepting a bribe from the contractor with members of the City Council during a recess in their Sept. 13, 2022 council session.
On Wednesday, Apura had told SunStar that the audio recording was made on the day the councilors had intended to cancel the authority it had given Barcenas in the previous session, to enter into a contract with the contractor for a livestock market project.
Apura said the plan to cancel the mayor’s authority came after he and some of his colleagues heard that the mayor had informed the accounting office that a councilor would be picking up a check for P22 million, which was the mobilization fund for the P149 million project.
However on Friday, Dec. 23, Abellana showed a list to SunStar Cebu indicating that the check worth P22,483,200 that was issued on Sept. 2, 2022 had been released on Sept. 6 as mobilization fund to a representative of the contractor for the livestock auction market project in Barangay Poblacion 3.
“Sa akong nahibaloan sir naa mi balaud nga dili kakuha ang lahi nga tawo diri kay magdala man na silag resibo kon moari dinhi,” Abellana said. (As far as I know, sir, we have a law that no other person can get the check because they will bring a receipt when they come here.)
Abella explained that the amount is 15 percent of the total project cost, which is P149 million, that can be requested by the contractor from the treasurer’s office as its project mobilization fund.
“Fifteen percent sa total amount, mao na ang unang makuha sa contractor para sa mobilization fund. Ang accounting man ang mo-determine ana didto. Igo ra mi mo-isyu og check,” Abellana said.
(Fifteen percent of the total amount, that’s what the contractor can get for the mobilization fund. The accounting department is the one that determines that. We just issue the check.)
Councilor Nacua also denied the allegations against him, saying that only the winning bidder of the project is entitled to claim the check.
Project stopped
The construction of the livestock auction market was given the go signal last March, or during the term of then mayor Mercedita Apura.
“March 8 ang notice to proceed. Dili kaayo ko ka sulti kon kanang panahona nagsugod na ba sila,” said city engineer Santiago Calinawan. (The notice to proceed was issued on March 8. I can’t say if they started construction at that time.)
Calinawan said the project, which is ongoing, is targeted to be finished in March next year.
But the engineer said the contractor may not be able to comply with that deadline since the project was delayed after the city council under the present administration allegedly ordered the construction stopped for reasons unknown to Calinawan.
Barcenas returned as mayor after winning in the May 2022 polls.
Barcenas had already previously served as mayor from 2001 to 2010.
The livestock auction market sits on a 3,000-square-meter lot across the public market.
Mayor speaks
Also on Friday afternoon, Mayor Barcenas again denied the allegation that his was the voice on the recording posted by Ely Sasuman on Facebook, discussing the amount of the SOP (standard operating procedure), euphemism for bribe, that he and the councilors would receive for the livestock auction market project.
He said he would let the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) conduct an investigation on the matter.
“Wala gyud koy kalibutan anang ilang gi-allege no. Sa pagkakaron duna koy gipasusi anang NBI para gyud na ma-answer. Mao nang menos kaayo pa kog tubag… kay ako pa nang gi-aninaw pa gyud ug maayo,” Barcenas said.
(I really don’t know anything about what they are alleging. Right now, I’m having something checked by the NBI. That’s why I rarely answer because I still have to clear things out).
Barcenas said the people of Carcar already know his character as a public servant for the past 30 years, and that if he had been a bad person, no one would have voted for him anymore.
On Friday morning, NBI 7 Director Rennan Augustus Oliva told SunStar Cebu that the Carcar mayor had yet to go to his office for help. (BBT, TPT / with HIC)