That is the nucleus of the verified complaint that Mario Velez Batar filed with the Office of the Ombudsman for Mindanao in the year 2022. In just a little over a month, 2025 is about to end but until now the case has not been resolved.

Batar is a licensed civil engineer (since 1986), who has held the offices of acting building official and city engineer in Cagayan de Oro City from 2008 to 2017. In September 2017, he applied for transfer to the Misamis Oriental provincial capitol when the position of provincial engineer was vacant. He has spent 34 years of his professional life in government service.

In Misamis Oriental province, the governor then was Yevgeny Vincente “Bambi” Emano. The Batar verified complaint was filed against this Emano. In Cagayan de Oro City, Batar’s boss was Bambi’s father Vicente, who used to be provincial governor. Today, the son Bambi is congressman of the 2nd District of Misamis Oriental. What is the name of this game common among dynasts — musical chairs? 

The Emano dynasty has so far counted seven family members in Misamis Oriental politics. The Ateneo School of Government would classify seven members as an obese dynasty. 

In the period leading to the verified complaint, then-governor Yevgeny Emano had summoned his department and office heads in February 2021 to a meeting to discuss the purchase of new heavy equipment for the maintenance of all provincial roads of Misamis Oriental.

In that meeting, the governor instructed his provincial accountant Marilou Rivera to clarify from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 10 if it truly requires only Euro 4 equipment. 

Batar recalls that the primary compliance was for the Clean Air Act of 1999 (Republic Act 8749) that mandated the shift to Euro 4 requirement, later introduced in 2005. In other words, the implementation of Euro 4 was phased into full compliance from 2005 to 2016. 

Euro 4 is a set of European emissions standards for vehicles that set stricter limits on pollutants like carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides than the previous Euro 3 standard.

And that was when the problem began. The governor expressed his disagreements with the Euro 4 requirement. Here at this stage came two conflicting official clarifications. First, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that “there were no exceptions to the DENR circular requiring Euro 4 compliance” for the heavy equipment the province intended to purchase.

The second poser came on March 1, 2021, by way of a memorandum from the EMB central office to EMB regional office 10 that “the graders, backhoes, roller compactors and excavators classified as heavy equipment are not covered by the Euro 4 requirement” and this was the reason given — “due to the absence of applicable regulations.” That was bizarre because in 2021, the Philippines was already requiring Euro 4 standards.

On the strength of that EMB memorandum, the governor revised the specifications of the proposed purchase and downgraded the requirement to Euro 3 and Euro 2.

By this time, Emano was no longer happy with Batar who had continually voiced his opposition to the downgrade. Thus in the approved purchase request of the equipment that Batar was supposed to sign as provincial engineer under the line “Requested by,” Emano signed instead. He also signed under the line “Approved by.” Notice the conflict of interest there. The governor as the approving authority does not sign under “Requested by.”

At this stage one begins to wonder what the objective was for the downgrade from Euro 4 compliance. That was soon revealed in the public bidding for the equipment. Batar now alleges that the bidding was rigged. 

In July, Emano reconstituted the membership of the bids and awards committee by excluding Batar who had sat as vice chairman. By the way, the total amount for the purchase was P417 million. 

Two bidders participated: JROG Marketing which bidded for P357.8 million and Jinyi Export and Import Trading Company for P400 million. By law, JROG could have won the bidding. But it was disqualified for having no service center in Cagayan de Oro City. In short, Jinyi won the bidding.

So what did Jinyi offer? These were heavy equipment made in the People’s Republic of China. Since these were Euro 3 and 2, the prices offered would have been lower than Euro 4 equipment, besides being substandard compared to Japanese brands. But no, they remained the same, which indicated they were overpriced. Batar was able to take hold of a record of a Jinyi past contract where he found the equipment to be grossly overpriced.

Batar’s prayer is for the Ombudsman to answer his query: was the government truly defrauded by Governor Yevgeny Emano? Batar filed cases for violation of Republic Act 7080 (Plunder Law), violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Government Procurement Reform Law, and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Named, aside from Emano, were the acting provincial accountant Marilou Rivera, the bids and awards committee chair Stanley Uriarte, BAC members Matthew Valleser, Bernardino Balo Jr., Rene Guingguing, Prisco Valmoria, and three members of the BAC’s Technical Working Group Florante Jipos, Annalie Abao, and Benjamin Resma.

Also named in his complaint was Joenard Centina, the sales manager of Jinyi.

Batar’s request from the Ombudsman is only real after three years: please act on his verified complaint.

In the current flood control scandals mess, Misamis Oriental ranks No. 14 of the Top 20 provinces with the most flood control projects. Under Yevgeny Emano, Misamis Oriental had a total P4,083,998,556.64 worth of flood control projects. This data can be  accessed in sumbongsapangulo.ph. 

Misamis Oriental also had a Discaya project. Curlee and Sarah Discaya’s Alpha and Omega General Contractor and Development was awarded by the Emano provincial government the “Construction of Flood Control Structure along Ala-e River (Right Bank) Package 1, Barangay Casinglot, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental in the amount of P96.5 million on November 23, 2023 when Emano was 2nd District congressman and his sister Nadya Emano Elipe the mayor of Tagoloan town.

There is a curious postscript as to what Emano did to Batar as early as October 2021 even before the complaint was filed. He put Batar on floating status and assigned him to the nearly moribund Misortel, the Misamis Oriental Telephone Company that, by that time, was on its death throes — it had less than 50 subscribers and active lines. A punishment for not acceding to his favored supplier?

It is only right and fitting that Ombudsman Mindanao act on Batar’s verified complaint three years after it was filed. What do they say about justice delayed? – Rappler.com