DOTC chief calls latest charges ‘malicious fabrications’

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez branded yesterday as "malicious fabrications" the charges made against him in a four-page newspaper advertisement by the MIAA-NAIA Association of Service Operators (MASO).

"There is actually nothing new in the latest black propaganda of MASO. After failing to substantiate the charges before the Ombudsman and the Commission on Appointments (CA), MASO is rehashing its old lies and trumped-up stories," Alvarez said in a statement.

In its latest of a series of paid print ads, MASO accused Alvarez of promoting the interest of the Philippine International Air Transport Co. (Piatco), which had been awarded the contract to develop the NAIA Terminal 3.

The group, led by MASO chairman Perfecto Yasay and Miascor president Jovino Lorenzo, has been waging a campaign to block his confirmation as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Emerging from a monthly Cabinet meeting at Malacañang yesterday, Alvarez denounced the latest vilification campaign of his opponents.

"That was a classic case of cruelty and the tyranny of money," the DOTC chief said.

Alvarez said President Arroyo did not discuss or make any comments about the MASO ads.

Asserting that his reputation had been maligned and his family was now suffering stress and humiliation, the DOTC chief said he is left with no other recourse but to seek redress in the courts in order to compel his detractors to put a stop to the "black propaganda."

Alvarez announced that he had instructed his lawyers to prepare the appropriate charges against MASO "so that truth and justice would be upheld."

He admitted that as senior assistant manager at the Manila International Airport (MIAA), he chaired the technical working committee that helped design the proposed terminal. He stressed, however, that he had no involvement in the drafting of the contract, much less its award to Piatco in 1997.

"These facts were all sustained by the Ombudsman when it dismissed the conspiracy, plunder and subornation of perjury charges filed against me by Mr. Yasay and Mr. Lorenzo. On the conspiracy charge, the Office of the Ombudsman noted that except for four respondents, all the 33 public private respondents had no participation whatsoever in the execution of the four questioned agreements on the government-Piatco deal to build NAIA 3," Alvarez said.

He added: "The Ombudsman observed that I assumed the DOTC post on Jan. 23, 2001, long after the four contracts were entered into and executed by DOTC/MIAA and Piatco."

The DOTC chief pointed out that the Ombudsman upheld the regularity of the award of the original concession agreement and three subsequent amendments.

Alvarez declared that "Yasay was lying through his teeth when he claimed that MIAA general manager Edgardo Manda refused to sign the third supplement to the original concession agreement.

"Mr. Manda is a signatory to said document. It was the proposed fourth supplement that he did not endorse to me and which I did not sign," he said.

Alvarez also ridiculed MASO’s claim that foreign investors were being driven away because of his policies at the DOTC.

"The truth of the matter is that there has been a steady stream of foreign investments in the transportation and communications sectors largely due to the reforms that I have initiated to streamline the operations and eliminate opportunities for corruption in the DOTC and its attached agencies," he said. "It is in fact people like Mr. Yasay who scare away investors. Through the use of the dreaded desist orders, they seek to overturn court rulings and legitimate contracts by applying all forms of harassment and pressure on winning bidders. Clearly, the objective of MASO in blocking my confirmation as well as the completion of the NAIA 3 project is not to cleanse government of venalities but solely to advance its vested interests."

He added that MASO’s "well-funded smear campaign against me and the NAIA 3 concessionaire is nothing but a smokescreen to hide its real intention, which is to desperately hang on to its monopoly over the lucrative ground handling business at NAIA."

House to vote today on Piatco findings

The House good government committee is scheduled to vote today on its findings on the controversial Piatco contract.

The committee will choose which to adopt between two conflicting reports – one submitted by its chairman, Rep. Ruy Elias Lopez of Davao City, and another by its senior vice chairman, Rep. Salacnib Baterina of Ilocos Sur.

Even while congressmen are quarreling over the huge Piatco contract, it was learned that Presidential Adviser for Strategic Projects Gloria Tan Climaco has written the Terminal 3 proponent-builder to seek new terms for the deal.

Lopez’s version of the good government committee report finds nothing wrong with the Piatco contract.

"Accordingly, no misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance could be attributed to any of the government representatives who executed the agreements," it said.

This particular conclusion could boost the chances for confirmation of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez, who is being blamed by some sectors in the airport for the "onerous" Piatco deal.

Alvarez is scheduled to face the CA again today.

The draft Lopez report runs in conflict with another version written by Baterina, who found the contract to be defective on both legal and constitutional grounds.

Baterina, a member of the House panel that prosecuted ousted President Joseph Estrada in his Senate impeachment trial, said the Piatco deal was never approved by the board of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as required by the Build-Operate-Transfer Law.

While he conceded that some of the amendments in the contract were passed upon by the NEDA investment coordinating committee, the same were not approved by the NEDA board headed by the President.

He said the ownership of the terminal builder-operator firm violates the 60-40 Filipino control requirement embodied in the Constitution.

Baterina went through an elaborate analysis of Piatco’s corporate layering to arrive at this particular conclusion.

Minority Leader Carlos Padilla (LDP, Nueva Vizcaya) and Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, who are members of the good government committee, said they will support the Baterina report.

"The contract is clearly disadvantageous to the government and inimical to public interest. We have to seek better terms," said Padilla. – With Marichu Villanueva, Jess Diaz