Ex-PEA chairman justifies road deal

Former chairman Frisco San Juan of the Public Estates Authority (PEA) justified yesterday the P584-million project cost for the controversial President Diosdado Macapagal Blvd. (PDMB), saying this was duly approved by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Testifying before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, San Juan said there was nothing irregular in the PDMB project and that the old PEA board followed everything in the book.

State Auditor Manuela de la Paz confirmed before the committee that the COA had indeed approved the original contract of P584.3 million.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, chairman of the Blue Ribbon, said that they decided to summon San Juan and the members of the old PEA board because they were the ones who approved the project that PEA director Sulficio Tagud had claimed to be overpriced.

PEA chairman Ernest Villareal previously told the committee that he and the PEA directors were not involved in the bidding, award and execution of the original construction agreement, which took place before they assumed office.

Tagud had filed plunder charges against the present PEA board for the alleged overprice, but Arroyo found it surprising that Tagud did not include the old board of directors who were the ones who approved the project.