FORMER Quezon City mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista and former city administrator Aldrin Cuña were convicted yesterday by the Sandiganbayan of one count of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) in connection with an anomalous procurement of a P32.11 million process automation system in 2019.
The anti-graft court’s Fifth Division sentenced Bautista and Cuña to six to ten years imprisonment and perpetually disqualified them from holding any public office.
The members of the court voted 2-1 to convict the defendants on the majority decision penned by Associate Justice and division chairperson Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta, in which Associate Justice Zaldy V. Trespeses concurred.
Associate Justice Georgina D. Hidalgo submitted a 33-page dissenting opinion, holding that the defendants deserve an acquittal based on insufficient evidence that their actions exhibited manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or inexcusable negligence relative to the transaction.
Based on the 2022 indictment, Bautista and Cuña were accused of unlawfully approving the release of the full payment of P32,107,912.50 to Geodata Solutions Inc. despite incomplete delivery of the Online Occupational Permitting and Tracking System (OOPTS) that was supposed to enable online and paperless transactions by applicants.
The defense relied heavily on the certificate of acceptance dated June 25, 2019 issued by the Business Permits and Licensing Department (BPLD) which declared that it accepted the delivery of the item purchased from Geodata which was “inspected and found to be in accordance with the specifications stipulated in the Supply and Delivery Agreement.”
However, the majority ruling held that there was no complete delivery of a functional online system that was ready for use by the city government and the transacting public.
“At the outset, the documentary and testimonial evidence submitted by the prosecution fully supported the fact that the Geodata applications could not qualify as complete delivery,” the court pointed out.
This finding was based on the testimony of BPLD officers that the application could not be accessed online since the Geodata representative could not provide the web address.
In addition, the city’s Information Technology Development Department (ITDD) said that Geodata only delivered the hardware and a glitchy application that did not work or was unusable even during demonstration by the supplier’s representative.
A crucial piece of evidence for the prosecution was the confidential memorandum of ITDD head Paul Padilla that the Geodata system, as of delivery time, “was only accessible via local area network” instead of via internet, and that “no automated generation of order of payment was deployed during project delivery” – both violations of the Terms of Reference.
Finally, the Sandiganbayan pointed out that while full payment was released to Geodata in June 2019, it was in early 2022 that the application was officially launched and became available to the public.
Padilla testified that the app only became usable after the city government contracted a second IT company that helped fix the glitches on the Geodata system.
In convicting Bautista, the Sandiganbayan pointed out that he personally signed the disbursement voucher dated June 28, 2019, which was vital in the release of the payment to Geodata.
On the other hand, Cuña was tagged as the “final signatory” before the check was issued to the supplier.
“The rush to effect payment to Geodata just two days before the term of office of both accused expired reels with the corrupt intent, dishonest design, or some unethical interest if only to ensure that Geodata received payment,” the Sandiganbayan said.
