Lim administration spent P48 million for meals, snacks, say
CAN a food caterer for the Dagupan City government actually serve 100,000 meals and 28,000 snacks daily for 18 days for 2,777 people?
This was the questioned raised by Mayor Belen Fernandez when she said she discovered that the city government under then Mayor Brian Lim procured meals and snacks worth P25 million for the benefit of stranded individuals, repatriated Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), COVID-19 patients, medical front liners and LGU personnel for 18 days from September 3 to 21, 2021, and another P23 million also for the same purpose in yet unspecified date during the pandemic.
Fernandez said these P48 million food procurements are now being looked into by a task force.
The first contract of the city government with Jerickos (contracted caterer) for P25 million called for the provision of 100,000 meals and 28,000 snacks for 18 days for 2,777 people. Its second contract for P23 million called for the provision of almost the same volume of meals and snacks.
She said it is highly impossible for a big number of people to be served with meals and snacks daily for 18 days just by one catering firm and it would appear that the city spent P1.5 million a day for meals and snacks alone.
“If we do the math again, it’s P25 million in 18 days. That’s a great party, with people at that time still wearing face masks and face shields”, said Fernandez who briefly cited the issue during the first meeting for the year of the Local Development Council (LDC) last month.
She noted that from September 3 to 21, the existing COVID facilities in Dagupan City only recorded few patients in view of a more lenient national policy adopted by health authorities that allowed mildly affected and asymptomatic COVID patients to just undergo home quarantine.
“And there were not many stranded individuals, repatriated OFWs, COVID-19 suspects, medical front liners and LGU personnel deployed for health duties at that time,” she added.
Fernandez said the task force is consolidating all the documents for these food purchases that could link former and incumbent officials of Dagupan City who affixed their signatures to documents relative to these transactions.
Asked when the city government will finally file cases against the past and present officials, Fernandez said: “Give us a little more time to gather all documents because if we file, we want to make sure that we win in every case we filed.” (Leonardo Micua)
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