SEVEN officials of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) are now facing lengthy jail terms in relation to the anomalous procurement of P47.14 million worth of wooden ties for railroads in 2013.
Convicted on two counts of graft were PNR division manager Abdul Aziz Pangandaman, department managers Estelito Nierva and Ruben Besmonte, lawyer Neofito Perilla, assistant department manager Divina Gracia Dantes, and engineers Cesar Bocanog and Mario Arias.
They were each sentenced to six to ten years imprisonment per graft charge or a total of 12 to 20 years with perpetual disqualification from holding another position in any government office.
However, the Sandiganbayan Seventh Division acquitted former PNR general manager Junio Ragragio and division manager Rosendo Calleja on the ground that there was no evidence of their direct participation in the procurement process.
Pangandaman, Nierva, Besmonte, Perilla, and Dantes were all members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the state rail company while Bocanog and Arias were with the Technical Working Group.
The 69-page decision of the anti-graft court was penned by Associate Justice Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta with the concurrences of Associate Justices Zaldy V. Trespeses and Georgina D. Hidalgo.
Based on the charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2017, the defendant PNR officials were accused of giving supplier Nikka Trading unwarranted preference or undue advantage through the award of two contracts for the delivery of wood bridges, wood joint ties and wood switch ties that did not comply with the required variety and safety specifications.
The first contract was worth P37.75 million, while the second one was for P9.39 million.
In convicting the seven PNR executives, the court note that the all the procurement documents including the Invitation to Bid, the Bid Data Sheet, the post-qualification report, the BAC Resolution, the Notice of Award, the Contract Agreement, and the notice to proceed all specified that the wood parts being purchased should be “Yakal” because of their strength and durability.
While supplemental bid bulletins dated November 8 and 29, 2011 modified the order to mean Yakal “or other species or kind of wood as long as it confirms to the mechanical and related properties of Philippine woods,” the Sandiganbayan held this did not alter the intent of the procurement which specified the Yakal variety.
It said the defendants were guilty of gross inexcusable negligence when they accepted Larch wood contrary to what was stated in the contract.
During trial, prosecution witness Elvina Bondad of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) — Forest Products Research and Development Institute gave expert testimony that the samples of Larch wood ties from those delivered by Nikka Trading only had a strength rating of “low to moderately low,” making them inferior to Yakal’s high strength classification.
The defendants’ actions aside from being unlawful also placed at risk the people who ride the PNR trains, the court pointed out.
“They blindly moved forward, carrying with them the risk of installing subpar quality and endangering the safety of the riding public,” the Sandiganbayan said.
