No action yet on PEA whistle-blower’s leave offer

President Arroyo has not yet taken the leave offer of the Public Estates Authority official who claimed to have exposed alleged irregularities in the construction of a segment of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) pending submission by the PEA board of an explanation on the controversy.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday that Mrs. Arroyo has not acted on the request of PEA director Sulficio Tagud Jr. who hand-carried a leave notice to Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Bunye said it may be "premature" for the PEA board to take such "action," alluding to an offer by Tagud to go on leave and his challenge to the PEA board to do the same thing.

Bunye said PEA board chairman Ernest Villareal sent word to Malacañang that the PEA explanation "should be forthcoming within the week" and would be forwarded to the Office of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz.

He refused to comment on denials by Senate opposition leaders of a supposed destabilization plot using the PDMB as an issue against the administration.

"We do not want to raise collateral issues that would only becloud the situation. So allegations were made... and we’re waiting for the explanation," he said.

Meanwhile, the owner of the firm which constructed a segment of the controversial PDMB alleged that PEA officials had tried to extort a total of P18.2 million in connection with the PDMB and another project that needed the approval of the agency.

In an affidavit submitted yesterday to the PEA, Jesusito Legaspi, owner of JD Legaspi Construction (JDLC), alleged that the amount was later reduced to P7 million, on top of the P2.1 million which he had earlier paid in cash.

Legaspi claimed that PEA assistant general manager Pelagio Lalap told him in a meeting at a Makati hotel that if he "needed help with the approval of the payment for the contract price adjustment (for the PDMB) in the amount of P42,418,493.64, PEA director Sulficio Tagud Jr. was ready to help." The meeting was held in November 2001.

"In this regard, Lalap requested that I pay Tagud the amount of 15 percent of the price adjustment. I said no to this proposal and stated that I did not need to resort to these activities, as my business dealings with the PEA were regular and lawful," Legaspi said in his affidavit, copies of which were distributed to media entities.

Legaspi said that according to Lalap, if he "did not enlist Tagud’s assistance and pay him accordingly, then Tagud would see to it that the contract price adjustment of JDLC would never be approved." The contractor said he did not believe Lalap’s threat at the time.

Legaspi said he learned that the board had deferred the approval of the contract price adjustment twice — on Dec. 5 and Dec. 14 - because Tagud had questioned the authority of the PEA management to approve the price adjustment.

Legaspi said he learned that Tagud had sought an inquiry into the increase in general prices of construction materials and this has caused the second deferment of the approval of the price adjustment.

But the JDLC owner said the Commission on Audit (COA) had already approved the contract price adjustment. The STAR obtained a copy of the COA approval dated Oct. 23, 2001 signed by corporate auditor Manuela de la Paz.

Legaspi said that during the second meeting at the same Makati hotel, Lalap repeated his threat.

"This time, I believed him... I was afraid that Lalap and Tagud would make matters difficult for JDLC. At that time, my pending billings with PEA had reached more than P400 million. Should Lalap make good on his threat, JDLC would surely go bankrupt," Legaspi said.

The contractor said he finally agreed to pay 10 percent of the price adjustment, amounting to P4.2 million.

Legaspi said he "paid Tagud, through Lalap, an initial payment of P2.1-million in cash for the cost adjustment. "I promised that I would pay them the balance once I had some money," Legaspi said.

Still, in February 2002, Legaspi said Lalap met him again at another hotel in Makati and discussed the contractor’s proposal for the P280-million Bay Boulevard project.

Lalap allegedly told Legaspi that Tagud would block the board’s approval of Supplemental Agreement for the Bay Boulevard Project "unless I give him (Lalap) and Tagud 5-percent of the contract price." The Bay Boulevard Project was a separate project and adjacent to the PDMB.

Legaspi said his company had already spent some P23 million for the project - P8 million for the detailed plan and P15 million for the importation of construction materials.

Legaspi said he received the notice to proceed to start preparing the detailed design for the Bay Boulevard project on June 15, 2001 through then PEA general manager Carlos P. Conde.

He said Lalap told him last February to issue a check for the five percent, or P14-million, and another check for the balance of the 10 percent, or another P2.1-million, on the price adjustment.

Legaspi said he issued the Union Bank of the Philippines check No. 6024988 for P2.1 million and another Union Bank of the Philippines check number 6024989 for P14 million in March.

Both checks were undated and payable to cash, Legaspi’s lawyer Napoleon Poblador told The STAR.

Legaspi said he asked Lalap that both checks be deposited only after JDLC received payments from PEA.

"In truth, I had no intention of actually funding the said checks and I only issued them to appease Lalap and Tagud," Legaspi said in his affidavit. "My ultimate desire was to expose their extortion racket before they could sabotage my interests in the projects awarded to me by the PEA."

Legaspi said in his affidavit that the PEA board approved the Supplemental Agreement for the construction of the Bay Boulevard Project on March 7, 2002, and confirmed and approved the funding for the price adjustment on April 19, 2002.

Legaspi said he finally reported the extortion incidents to board director Rodolfo Tuazon on Aug. 7, 2002.

Tuazon, in his own affidavit, had said that Lalap admitted to him on Aug. 8 that he extorted money from Legaspi on behalf of Tagud, on the mere condition that it be kept between themselves.

Lalap allegedly told Tuazon that out of the initial P2.1-million, P300,000 was given to him by Tagud, and the rest was supposedly kept by the director to be distributed to the other board members.

Lalap said that he already gave the P14-million check to Tagud who handed it to a third person whom Lalap, Tuazon said, refused to identify.

Based on bank records attached by Legaspi in his affidavit, the stop payment order for the checks were only issued on August 23, apparently the same date indicated in the checks. – With Jose Aravilla