THE Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office filed graft charges against the chief of the district engineering office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and five other ranking officials for alleged involvement in an anomalous multimillion-peso flood control projects.

Charged were Florida Pangilinan-Nuñez, acting chief of the Cebu Fifth District Engineering Office; Eduardo R. Virtucio, bids and awards committee (BAC) chairman of the DPWH engineering office; Stephen Eric G. Castrodes, BAC vice chairman; and Lito O. Catubig, Rogelio Quibilan and Violeto C. Orbeta, BAC members.

The respondents each posted a P90,000 bail.

The charges stemmed from a criminal case filed by businessman Pablito Obial, owner of P.B. Obial Construction, on June 2022, against the six officials.

Obial alleged that the respondents post-disqualified his company from five government projects despite being declared as having the lowest bid in a December 2019 bidding for a flood control project.

On Sept. 13, 2022, the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office issued an information against the DPWH officials for violation of Section 3 of Republic Act 3019 or the “AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

The Cebu Prosecutor’s Office information accused the DPWH officials of “conniving and confederating together and mutually helping with one another, with deliberate intent and acting with manifest impartiality...”

On July 22, 2022, the respondents filed a motion for reconsideration before the Department of Justice prosecutor’s office, alleging that the statement of a witness in the case was “hearsay and self-serving.”

In October 2022, Cebu City Chief Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas denied the motion, ruling that “probable cause can be established with hearsay evidence, as long as there is substantial basis for crediting the hearsay.’’