The Mandaue City Council is set to file a case against several city officials, including Mayor Jonas Cortes, with the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas for alleged ?overpriced? and ?substandard? construction materials recently given to fire victims.

Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, presiding officer of the opposition-led City Council, said all those who signed the purchase order, the bids and awards committee (BAC) resolution, and the purchase request for the materials would be investigated, along with supplier.

Those to be investigated include Budget Officer Lamberto Marababol, General Services Chief Dario Mago, Social Services Chief Violeta Cavada, Deputy City Administrator Eutiquio Sanchez and City Administrator Briccio Joseph Boholst.

Fortuna told a press conference that he believed the galvanized iron (GI) sheets and marine plywood materials delivered to victims of a fire in barangay Umapad were overpriced and defective.

Speaking on Cortes? behalf, City Administrator Boholst said he saw nothing irregular with the price of the materials as the prices presented by Fortuna did not include taxes and other expenses.

He added that the issue of defective or substandard materials was currently the subject of an internal investigation he was also conducting. ?We will do what needs to be done; if heads will roll, then heads will roll,? said Boholst of the instructions given to him by Cortes.

Fortuna said that when they checked yesterday with supplier, the price of marine plywood was pegged at P276, well below the price the City paid for it at P395. Aside from that, some of the plywood given to the victims did not meet the prescribed quality standard.

The gauge-26 GI sheets, on the other hand, could be bought at other suppliers in the city for only P197 at Querubin Construction Supply Inc. and at P178 at Vic Enterprises, one of the biggest suppliers in Mandaue. The City paid P495 each for the same gauge-26 GI sheets.

?There was intentional overpricing. They (administration) approved overpriced plywood and GI sheets. It was a clear indication of graft and corruption,? Fortuna said.

Boholst?s deputy city administrator Eutiquio Sanchez, a member of the Bids and Awards Committee, said suppliers usually raise the prices of their products because it usually take two to three months before the government can release payments.

Aside from taxes like the Value Added Tax, the supplier also puts up a 10-percent retention fee, said Sanchez. There are also other additional expenses, said both Sanchez and Boholst, that made the price higher.

?It is nothing like an apple for an apple,? Boholst added. ?I hope this is not an excuse to divert attention from the vice mayor?s receiving a transportation allowance even though the government has already assigned him a service vehicle.?

Boholst was referring to a case at the Ombudsman, filed by the mayor?s allies, against Fortuna for malversation of funds. Fortuna was assigned a Hyundai Grand Starex van with a fuel allocation, but continued receiving his monthly transportation allowance of about P6,000.

The city administrator also said that he had no problem with the filing of complaints against him and other officials by the opposition bloc at the Council. ?Those are hazards of the trade. We will even provide them the documents for their Council committee investigation, because we have nothing to hide,? Boholst explained.

Fortuna said that the City Council committee on budget and the committee on good governance were currently gathering pertinent papers that would be endorsed to the Ombudsman when they formally seek an inquiry into the alleged ?overpricing and substandard materials.?

Two weeks ago, the city gave construction materials as assistance to 505 families who were victims of a fire in barangay Umapad last May 24. The total appropriation for the assistance was around P6.02 million, taken from the city?s calamity fund.

House owners whose houses were destroyed received P10,000 worth of construction materials. The calamity funds used to finance this assistance was P5.05 million.

Some 142 house renters and sharers, on the other hand, were also given P5,000 in assistance each from the city government.

A week after the delivery of the materials, the victims approached the opposition leaders to complain of ?substandard? products. The opposition later announced that the products were not only substandard but also overpriced.