Complaint filed vs QC's Belmonte, others over allegedly overpriced food packs

A graft complaint was filed against Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte and other local officials on Monday over allegedly overpriced food packs procured by the local government.

Task Force Kasanag President John Chiong filed the complaint against Belmonte, QC Officer-in-Charge Ruby Manangu, LXS Trading representative Angelica Solis, and employees of the LGU and the company at the Office of the Ombudsman

Chiong alleged that the local government bought 250,000 food packs for P287,475,000, a price of P1,149 per unit, in November 2020.

However, he said the food packs should have been purchased at P715 per pack, amounting to a total of P178,808,000.

“Thus, there is a clear and blatant overprice amounting to more than P108,000,000 for the 250,000 food packs purchased by the Quezon City Government,” Chiong claimed.

“Clearly, the excess of more than P100 million was appropriated by respondents themselves,” he added.

Chiong also claimed that Belmonte gave undue advantage to the supplier, saying that the local government could have purchased the same items from others at a lower price.

“Simply put, the subject transaction is grossly and immorally overpriced, not only compared to the prices during the time of purchase, but even when compared to current retail prices,” he said.

“Worse, Quezon City should have been able to obtain a huge discount since the purchase was done in bulk,” he added.

GMA News Online has sought comment from the QC LGU, which has yet to respond as of posting time.

Same ploy from 2010 playbook

In a statement, QC legal head Atty. Orlando Casimiro stressed that Belmonte’s supposed political rivals were following “every step of their 2010 election playbook.”

“Recall that 11 years ago, this political camp did exactly the same thing against then-Mayor Herbert Bautista: first, they presented alleged evidence of wrongdoing to the media, then they created noise to prolong the story, and finally they ended with a plunder charge,” he said.

“Indeed, a snake can shed its skin, but its pattern remains the same,” he added.

Casimiro went on to dismiss the effort as futile given that the citizens of Quezon City were “smarter and more discerning” than political rivals give them credit for.

“Ang mga dating diskarte at trapo-style ng pamumulitika ay hindi na bumebenta ngayon. In fact, sawa na ang tao sa ganyan. Hindi na nadadala ang mga QCitizen ngayon sa puro ingay, kasi alam nila na ang pinakamaingay na lata ay yung walang laman,” he said.

(The old methods and traditional-style political maneuverings no longer work. People have had enough of that. Quezon City citizens are no longer swayed by all this noise, because they know that the noisiest tin can is the one with nothing in it.)

Casimiro was also confident that the cases would be exposed as “tools for distraction and black propaganda” in the proper court of law.

“The QC Government strictly adheres to all the provisions of RA 9184 or the Procurement Act, and in fact received the highest COA rating for the year 2020. We are positive that this complaint will be dismissed, and our names vindicated,” he said. — DVM, GMA News