DOTC chief laughs off plunder raps

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez brushed aside yesterday as "mere propaganda" the P76-million plunder complaint filed against him before the Ombudsman in connection with the construction of the $500-million Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal III.

Alvarez told reporters the filing of the case against him was "politically motivated" and that "certain quarters" may be harassing Cabinet secretaries to prevent their confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

"I don’t remember having done any plunder," he said. "I have not seen the charge sheet."

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman has dismissed for lack of merit the complaint of graft and corruption filed against former DOTC Secretary Vicente Rivera Jr. and three others.

The Ombudsman said the agreement between the government and Philippine International Air Cargo Terminals Inc. (PIATCO) was not disadvantageous to the government.

Also cleared were Victorino Basco, former chairman of the Bases Conversion Development Authority; Francisco Atayde, former general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority; and Henry Go, PIATCO president.

The case was filed by Rogelio Estrella, president of Bangon Pasay Movement.

Alvarez dismissed allegations that the government was defrauded of P76 million when PIATCO was said to have overpriced initial excavation work at the airport site.

"I have nothing to do with the contract because it had been perfected in 1997," he said. "We’re just continuing what had been contracted before."

In its complaint, the Manila International Airport-Ninoy Aquino International Airport Association of Service Operators (MASO) accused Alvarez, NAIA general manager Edgardo Manda, and PIATCO officials of conniving to earn a windfall of P76.5 million at the government’s expense.

Perfecto Yasay, MASO spokesman, said Alvarez owned Wintract Builders, contractor of the project, to prepare the site for the planned airport.

However, Alvarez said Wintrack does not belong to him, although he admitted that his wife had a "minimal share" in the company of which she has since divested.

"I am not a stockholder of Wintrack Corp.," he said. "How could I be connected with it? If there is a problem with the deal, why are they implicating me? They should run after Wintrack, not me."

In a statement yesterday, PIATCO spokesman Moises Tolentino Jr. said MASO’s complaint was a "malicious design" to harass companies that it considers allied with its competitors and to protect its "selfish interests" at the expense of the nation.

"MASO is not at all concerned that its underhanded tactics could possibly erode investor confidence in the Philippines, particularly those involving private investments under the BOT Law," he said. "This is clearly economic sabotage and is absolutely reprehensible."

Tolentino said PIATCO, a Filipino-German-Japanese joint venture, is the proponent of the NAIA terminal 3 project, which was awarded in 1997 after PIATCO offered to pay the government almost P18 billion in guaranteed revenues over 25 years.

In addition to these guaranteed payments, PIATCO will pay the government five to 10 percent of the gross revenues annually and remit 36 percent of all terminal fees collected, he added.

On the other hand, Adriano Nacorda, director of Protect the Filipino Movement (Pro-Fil Movement), said in a statement Alvarez and other transportation officials have been accused of plunder before the Ombudsman by a group of businessmen "with big stakes at NAIA" to blackmail them.

"These big businessmen want to delay the planned progress at the NAIA," he said. "With status quo, they keep their billions in service contracts. Who cares about having a world-class airport? These businessmen think that for as long as Filipinos are poor, we do not deserve an airport projecting the aspirations of the ordinary Filipino."

Nacorda said Pro-Fil believes big business had always been for the protection of their vested interests and that public statements for the poor and the country’s economic uplift are nothing but lip service.

"The issue of the NAIA Terminal III is a classic example of big business interests," he said. "These businessmen cannot care less for the country. They would rather have a dilapidated airport, if only to protect their billion-peso service contracts."

Businessmen will mount every conceivable campaign to the point of peddling lies and to protect "hundreds of millions of pesos" of income from airport operations, he added.