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This afternoon at the Ombudsman’s office, Makati’s former vice mayor filed a graft complaint against the city’s acting mayor for allegedly favoring a company whose cakes are supposedly overpriced.
(The cakes are government-paid birthday presents to senior citizens residing in the city.)
But is former Makati vice mayor Roberto Brillante just being pedantic? According to him, current mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr. cancelled an existing contract with Timstate / Bakerite Food and Beverage Corporation, which was supplying birthday cakes for PHP306, in favor of Goldilocks whose cakes cost PHP280 but are actually two inches smaller in height.
Now, we’re sure you don’t need to be an elected government official to know that the size of a thing doesn’t always dictate its value — unless it’s in the porn industry. There are other factors to consider, such as quality of ingredients, kitchen equipment, working conditions, and more.
In his 47-page complaint, Brillante said that by awarding an PHP8.666-million contract to Goldilocks to supply 31,187 cakes from August to December 2015, the city ended up paying PHP3.036-million more than it would for the same volume of cakes.
Which is not entirely accurate. The original budget set aside by Makati for the contract was PHP9.356,100 and Goldilocks actually proposed a lower cost (the aforementioned PHP8.6-million). It was also the lone bidder, and that’s how it won the bid. Surely you can’t claim that it one company was favored over others when there were no other companies competing for the contract in the first place?
Nevertheless, Peña denied that he favored Goldilocks in the bidding, saying that there are several popular bakeshops in Makati. He pointed out that he has “no influence, no friends and no name in the boards of directors” of these popular bakeshops. With reporting from ABS-CBNnews.com.
Photo: Makati acting mayor Kid Peña. The original version of this report has been edited for clarity.
