DOTC chief welcomes NAIA terminal probe

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez welcomed yesterday the planned investigation of the Philippine International Air Terminal Co., Inc. (PIATCO) deal on the NAIA Terminal 3 project by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

Speaking through DOTC spokesman Ramon Cuyco, Alvarez said he was optimistic the anti-graft body would exonerate him of the charges that he personally benefited from the PIATCO contract.

"Secretary Alvarez said the inquiry would give him the opportunity to formally answer the baseless allegations against him and he was hoping that the inquiry would also put an end to the smear campaign against him by certain vested interests," Cuyco said.

According to Cuyco, the sole basis for dragging Alvarez into the case was the DOTC chief’s wife’s ownership of some shares in Wintrack, a sub-contractor of a contractor of PIATCO for earthwork activities.

Mrs. Alvarez, Cuyco said, divested herself of all her shares from Wintrack immediately after her husband was appointed DOTC chief.

At the time the NAIA 3 contract was awarded to PIATCO in 1997, Alvarez was assistant general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority.

"It is hard to believe that a minor bureaucrat could influence the grant of the award to PIATCO as the detractors of Alvarez alleged," Cuyco said.

Cuyco pointed to businessman Lucio Tan as the mastermind behind the smear campaign against Alvarez.

Lucio Tan’s consortium, Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. lost to PIATCO in the bidding for the NAIA 3 project.

"Mr. Lucio Tan and his front organization MASO want to derail the project at all cost because they would lose their preferred status once the NAIA 3 project is finished. Mr. Tan is blocking Secretary Alvarez’s confirmation because the Secretary is determined to implement the NAIA 3 project, whose contract had been declared above board by the Ombudsman," Cuyco said.