Ramos partially cleared in Expo scam

Former President Fidel Ramos was partially cleared yesterday by the Ombudsman of graft charges linked to the P7.3-billion Centennial Expo project in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said Ramos' name has been dropped from the list of those being investigated for the upgrading of the budget for the Freedom Ring in the Expo.

But Desierto clarified that his office is still investigating Ramos on three more aspects of the Expo scam, among them the alleged unlawful realignment of funds from six government departments, irregularities in some biddings and overpricing.

"We have cleared Ramos only in this aspect (Freedom Ring). This is not so fast," the Ombudsman said, adding they had to do their own probe since evidence turned over by an ad hoc investigative committee was "incomplete."

Desierto said they have elevated graft charges against former National Centennial Commission (NCC) chairman Salvador Laurel, former Expocorp president Teodoro Peña and Asiakonstruct president Eduardo Angeles to preliminary investigation after graft probers established that the contractor was given "unwarranted benefits."

"I challenge them to produce evidence. We don't protect anybody here," Desierto said, anticipating criticisms that he had cleared Ramos in the Freedom Ring probe because the former president was his benefactor.

In a news conference, he said Ramos' name was "excluded" from those being investigated for graft after it was discovered that he refused to upgrade the Freedom Ring budget from P280 million to P1.165 billion as recommended by Laurel.

"He (Ramos) refused to increase the budget. He didn't even want the increase to be done because he twice rejected the proposal (in January and February 1997) to upgrade the budget by stating in a marginal note to stick to the original budget," the Ombudsman said.

The Freedom Ring, an amphitheater which was supposed to accommodate 35,000 persons in a 2.8-hectare lot, turned out to be "nine hectares" in scope and cost the government P1.165 billion when "eventually implemented."

Desierto admitted it was Laurel who approved the increased budget, and added it was the former vice president who recommended to the Palace to make a down payment of 50 percent of the total budget allocation, when the law allows only a 15 percent down payment.

"The buck stops at Laurel. He approved the budget even without the approval of former President Ramos," said Desierto, whose office prosecutes government officials on graft and corruption cases.

"The Fact-Finding and Investigation Bureau found that the Freedom Ring contract was grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the government, and that the award to Asiakonstruct gave the latter unwarranted benefits," he said.

He also said the former NCC chairman "compromised the secrecy of the sealed bids by prematurely opening the same in his law office" and awarded it to Asiakonstruct in December 1996, as the country prepared for the 1998 centennial anniversary celebration of its independence from Spain.

Meanwhile, though no indictments have yet been handed down, the embattled Laurel has begun to fight back.

The former NCC chairman filed the other day before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court a suit seeking to declare as null and void the findings of the ad hoc independent citizens' committee led by former Sen. Rene Saguisag, which found him culpable for graft.

His 29-page civil suit is also asking the court to award him P20 million in moral damages and another P1-million in exemplary damages for the "moral shock, besmirched reputation, mental anguish, wounded feelings, serious anxiety and social humiliation" the Saguisag committee caused him.

Aside from Saguisag, also named as respondents were committee members Francis Pangilinan, Fiorello Estuar and Corazon dela Paz.

Laurel said the committee was created by President Estrada on Feb. 24, 1999 through Administrative Order No. 53, which he branded a "legally defective law without any constitutional and statutory basis."

As defined by the 1987 Administrative Code, administrative orders are "acts of the President which relate to particular aspects of government operations in pursuance of his duties as administrative head," Laurel noted.

But he said "there is nothing in AO 53 which relates to a 'particular aspect' of governmental operations."

Because of this, the Nov. 5, 1999 committee report recommending the filing of graft charges against him for violation of Republic Act 6713; malversation of public funds; and violation of Article 186 of the Revised Penal Code prohibiting monopolies and combinations of restraint of trade, is also null and void, Laurel said. --