Former Cebu City mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia today denied his administration purchased t-shirts at P20,000 each. Garcia asked Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival and Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña to provide documents to prove their allegations on the purchase or else apologize.
Garcia said he is studying filing criminal and civil cases against Archival and Osmeña over the allegations.
Garcia said Osmeña never showed documents to support his allegations. He asked the media not to just report whatever Osmeña “blurts” out without asking for proof.
Garcia said he checked recent transactions at City Hall involving t-shirts and presented a procurement request that showed what he said were the typical prices of t-shirt purchases: P500 for printed Dri-Fit Polyester Fabric shirts without collars and P600 for those with collars.
”These are all lies and fake news,” Garcia said in a press conference he called today to answer the allegations.
”Tell him he will have access to all the relevant documents when we file them in court. For all his anomalies, not just this one,” Osmeña told Rappler in a text message after being told of Garcia’s response.
Archival, meanwhile, told reporters that the information he got were “raw and unverified” that were just relayed to him. He apologized to Garcia.
Garcia said the camp of Archival and Osmeña were guilty of lying not only about the shirt purchase but also about the BYD vehicle procurement, the alleged deficit at City Hall, and the reported engagement of former COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza to look into the city’s finances.
While Garcia said he would welcome Mendoza’s engagement to look into the City’s finances, what happened with the announcement by Osmeña showed that it was all a “publicity stunt.”
Osmeña had announced on Facebook that he met with Mendoza and she will help audit, as a third-party, the city’s finances. Mendoza later clarified that she was in Cebu for a private gathering and that she wants a more general approach in helping the cities asking for her assistance.
”While I like to think that this is a good start, I felt like it may unnecessarily drag me into their local politics,” Mendoza posted on her Facebook page.
Garcia also said that the cancellation of the purchase of a BYD electric vehicle was not an issue because no payment was released. He said City Hall decided to buy an e-vehicle as a way to comply with the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act, which mandates that e-vehicles comprise 5 percent of a local government’s vehicle fleet.
Garcia said Osmeña was overstepping his mandate and should just focus on legislation. He asked Archival and Osmeña to just focus on work instead of “spreading fake news.”