Congressmen seek abolition of PEA

Irked by a string of scandals that has caused "national shame," congressmen called on President Arroyo yesterday to abolish the Public Estates Authority (PEA) and to punish its officials if found guilty.

If the President did not heed their request, a congressman suggested he would move to reduce to P1 the PEA’s allocation during deliberations on next year’s budget.

At the Senate, the Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Sen. Joker Arroyo would investigate the alleged overpricing of a 2.3-kilometer segment of the 5.1-km President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB), and the terms and conditions of the funding by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

At Malacañang, Mrs. Arroyo ordered the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) to complete within 60 working days its investigation into the alleged PDMB rip-off.

Also yesterday, PEA director Sulficio Tagud Jr. postponed for the second time the filing of plunder case against a private contractor and 15 ranking officials of the PEA whom he had accused of involvement in the alleged highway scam.

In a telephone interview, lawyer Leonard de Vera, designated spokesman for the newly created team of prosecutors that would handle prosecution of those involved in the alleged PDMB scam, said Tagud decided to defer the filing of plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The filing of charges against Jesusito D. Legaspi, sole proprietor of the J.D. Legaspi Construction (JDLC), PEA chairman Ernest Villareal and other PEA officials was deferred after more than one dozen non-government organizations (NGOs) expressed intention to join Tagud as complainant.

In a statement, Villareal said that if Tagud did not want to file charges, he should "stop making accusations left and right" and "finish what he had started."

Meanwhile, the Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA) said it supports Tagud in his bid to expose "a case of plunder" in the PEA.

"This agency (PEA) has become a source of our national shame, a towering symbol of mind-boggling graft and corruption in the country. We should now abolish it," said opposition Rep. Rolex Suplico (LDP, Iloilo).

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Lakas, Surigao del Norte) supported the move to abolish the PEA. But Barbers said agency officials who were behind the recent scams should first be investigated and punished if found guilty.

"Heads must roll. Unmitigated corruption in high places proves that the Philippines is still Asia’s basket case," he said.

Barbers said a House inquiry expected to open shortly would help unravel stories of corruption in PEA.

Suplico said Mrs. Arroyo should scrap the agency herself. "But if she won’t do it, I would suggest during the budget deliberation process that we allot just P1 to this scandal-prone office," he said.

He recalled Congress gave the Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau just P1 during the time of then President Joseph Estrada, thus effectively collapsing it.

Suplico said the PEA has been at the "center of graft-related scandals," the latest of which was the alleged overpricing of a segment of the PDMB.

Another project, the conversion of the Old Bilibid Prisons in Sta. Cruz, Manila into a commercial-residential complex for which the PEA had obtained a P1-billion loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines, could soon explode into a full-blown scandal, he said.

A few years ago, there was the anomalous PEA-Amari land deal dubbed as the "mother of all scams" which the Supreme Court recently voided, he said.

Suplico suggested that PEA’s functions be transferred to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

"It would be timely to do this now that Public Works Secretary Simeon Datumanong has been appointed to head PEA," he said.

Senate investigation

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, author of the resolution calling for a Senate investigation, said the P1-billion loan extended by the GSIS to the PEA for the project might compromise the ability of the GSIS to pay all member-benefits and expenses when they become due.

"The amount lent by the GSIS, including the P700-million interest, is a public debt, the repayment of which would further burden already overburdened government coffers," Biazon said.

Arroyo said he would call for a public hearing, despite his earlier misgivings, if this were the wish of the Senate. He had earlier expressed his preference that any probe on the controversial PDMB be done by the Senate committee on public works and highways headed by Sen. Ramon Revilla.

"We do not have the expertise that the public works committee has," Arroyo said.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said that a committee has no choice but to accept an assignment referred to it in plenary.

"But a committee chairman can set his priorities, and may conduct hearings on a particular resolution immediately," Drilon said.

The Senate investigation was also referred to the Senate committee on banks and financial institutions, headed by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., and committee on government corporations and public enterprises headed by Sen. John Osmeña.

Sen. Edgardo Angara expressed doubts whether the GSIS has the mandate to extend loans to the PEA road project.

"The GSIS is only mandated to invest in income-generating projects, and the PDMB does not fall within that category," he said.

During his daily briefing, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the latest presidential directive to PAGC chairman Dario Rama applies to the specific allegations by Tagud.

Bunye said the President wants the PAGC to focus its investigation into specific allegations of Tagud on the alleged overpricing and for it not to be sidetracked by subsequent allegations and suggestions by some quarters that the controversial road be renamed Central Boulevard.

Bunye said renaming the road was "certainly worth looking into but it does not go into the heart of the matter (which) is to determine whether the allegations are correct or not."

"The main issue here is whether there is overpricing or not," he said.

Clarifications on alleged PDMB scam

Lawyer De Vera said the NGOs were in the process of making clarifications in connection with the PDMB scam.

"There are many issues they want to clarify first. They want to join Tagud, because if something happens to Tagud or he is struck by lightning so to speak, there will be others who will continue the charges," De Vera said.

He said the postponement was not due to political pressure from Malacañang and that "there is no evidence yet linking Malacañang in the alleged conspiracy in the scam."

Tagud, who was earlier charged by Legaspi with graft and grave threats in the Office of the Ombudsman, said the charges against him were merely part of a demolition job against him.

Villareal appealed to Tagud yesterday after Tagud refused a Malacañang challenge that charges be filed on what he described as "another anomaly in the PEA’s jail project in Bicutan, Taguig."

Villareal said that Tagud himself admitted that he did not have "enough evidence" for the alleged jail anomaly, but Tagud went on to publicize it.

"This is just like the fraud Mr. Tagud claims in the construction of a portion of the President Diosdado Macapagal Blvd., wherein he has been making accusations almost daily, but has not presented even a shred of evidence," he said.

Villareal said the entire PEA board was "ready to face Tagud in any forum or probe anytime," especially if the director will file charges against them.

Meanwhile, COPA said Tagud presents to the Filipino people "another case of plunder" and that he "brings with him documents which our allies from the legal profession have studied carefully and have concluded that indeed, plunder has been committed."

COPA said Tagud’s situation was similar to the appeal for help by former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson to expose "plunder in the highest places," an allusion to the charges that then President Estrada was protecting jueteng lords. — With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Jose Rodel Clapano