I am sipping coffee as I write this blog piece at 5 o’ clock in the morning.
The radio is on and Bombo Radyo Iloilo is reporting that the municipality of Barotac Nuevo has been rocked by a scandal over the overpriced purchase of two dilapidated heavy equipment — a road grader and a dump truck — for the outrageous sum of P7 million.
What? I thought the Birons are super-rich, and the temptation of stealing public funds doesn’t appeal to them!
According to Bombo John Felco Talento, the heavy equipment purchase was made by Mayor Hernan Biron purportedly to provide the LGU with better capability to repair and maintain its local roads. Mayor Biron is the father of Rep. Ferjenel Biron, M.D., of the fourth district of Iloilo.
The problem is that the two pieces of equipment were found to be old and dilapidated when its procurement papers stated these were brand-new. Worse, the grade could not be utilized because it lacked vital parts like the blade. The dump truck was discovered to be 1995 model, not 2008 model as Biron made it appear to be.
A second-hand dump truck costs only P500,000. An old grader can be purchased for P1.0 million. This means that whoever made this purchase skimmed off a hefty P5.5 million! The fingerprints in the crime scene point to the mayor’s office under Biron.
The anomaly was discovered by the Commission on Audit, which also discovered that the owner’s manual for the grade was virtually useless. That’s because it was in the Chinese language. An ordinary Filipino equipment operator will never get to learn the instructions contained in the manual.
This expose is significant because it comes in the wake of wild accusations made by Congressman Biron that the administration of Governor Niel Tupas Sr. is riddled with anomalies. “I just can’t prove it, but I know it is true,” Biron said. It seems that with this discovery, the issue has boomeranged on him. It hit him smack in the face because his own father is now confronted with a red-hot issue.
Perhaps Cong. Biron will want to give his father a piece of advise: resign!
Desperately waiting for the father and son, Rep. Ferjenel and Mayor Hernan Biron, to face the media and explain this anomaly.
Biron is blaming the Tupas administration for the disclosure of the COA report on the heavy equipment anomaly to the media. Why doesn’t he just confront the issue and skip the finger pointing?