The Office of the Ombudsman has placed 12 Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials under six-month preventive suspension for alleged irregularities in a P289 million flood control project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said the suspension was issued on October 23 by Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla. It covers DPWH officials in Mimaropa and members of the department’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

The following are the suspended individuals:

• Gerald Pacanan, DPWH regional director

• Gene Ryan Altea, DPWH assistant regional director

• Ruben D.S. Santos, DPWH assistant regional director

• Montrexis Tamayo, DPWH OIC-chief, Planning and Design Division

• Dominic Serrano, DPWH construction division chief and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairperson

• Dennis Abagon, DPWH OIC-chief, Quality Assurance and Hydrology Division, BAC regular member

• Juliet Calvo, DPWH Maintenance Division Chief

• Lerma Cayco, DPWH accountant IV

• Felisardo Casuno, DPWH project engineer III

• Grace Lopez, BAC member

• Frierich Karl Camero, Legal Division Chief and

• Timojen Sacar, materials engineer

Clavano said the preventive suspension “arose from the administrative case filed alongside the criminal complaint.”

Several of the suspended officials—including Pacanan, Altea, Delos Santos, Serrano, Cayco, Calvo, Casuno, Abagon, and Tamayo—have entered not guilty pleas before the Sandiganbayan 6th Division in connection with the alleged anomalies in the flood control project.