Ex-CUC chief: Villagomez pressured me to sign $120K contract

Former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Anthony C. Guerrero took the witness stand yesterday to testify that Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez pressured him to process the $120,000 Rydlyme sole-source contract with Joaquina V. Santos’ Blue Pacific.

The 13th day of the ongoing jury trial of Villagomez and his co-defendants—former Commerce Secretary James A. Santos and Joaquina V. Santos—also saw Guerrero testifying that Villagomez instructed him to double the number of barrels of Rydlyme being requested by the Power Division.

Guerrero has already pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy, and theft of federal funds.

In his testimony, Guerrero said the first requisition voucher was for 10 drums of Rydlyme, but Villagomez called him and asked him to look into increasing or doubling the original number. CUC ended up buying 3,000 gallons of Rydlyme from Blue Pacific for $120,000. So far, CUC has paid only $60,000 to Blue Pacific.

Guerrero admitted signing the sole-source contract for CUC Procurement and Supply acting manager Manuel B. Sablan because Sablan had some concerns with it.

“Sablan basically refused to sign the contract,” Guerrero told assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley.

He said that in early August of 2007, he received two letters from Joaquina Santos where she made a sales pitch for Rydlyme.

After receiving the second letter, Guerrero said he received a phone call from Villagomez, who instructed him to process the contract of Blue Pacific with Procurement and Supply. In that conversation with Villagomez, Guerrero said he could hear Joaquina Santos’ voice in the background.

He said his next communication with Villagomez was a phone call, during which the lieutenant governor appeared irritated with Sablan and his staff, Joseph Fejeran, for soliciting quotations for Rydlyme from other vendors.

“I told Villagomez that Sablan was just covering his bases,” he said. “He [Villagomez] was angry about it.”

Guerrero said he also had a brief conversation with James Santos in the hallway of the governor’s conference room during a Cabinet meeting. He said James Santos, who was the then Commerce Secretary, followed up on the Rydlyme contract.

Guerrero said shortly after the sole-source contract was executed, Villagomez called to press for the initial payment. “He basically told me to get on top of it,” Guerrero said.

He said it is his understanding that Villagomez also contacted some CUC staff about it.

Guerrero said CUC was struggling with funds that week and even that year and that “it’s very disturbing” that Villagomez was following up on the payment.

Guerrero said the Federal Bureau of Investigation put a wire on him during his conversations with Villagomez. As he expected, the witness said, Villagomez was very general and short in the taped conversations. “I didn’t get much from his conversation,” he said, adding that his past experience with Villagomez on the Rydlyme issue was always “very short and direct.”

Guerrero said he felt right away that Villagomez was not comfortable when discussing Rydlyme.