Angara warns vs ‘midnight deals’

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara warned the Arroyo administration yesterday against "midnight deals" that it might enter into in its last eight months in office.

He said his warning is also addressed to corrupt government officials, dealmakers and private companies and investors involved in such transactions.

"The opposition will question the sale of state assets even after payments had been made. We look at them as midnight deals," he said.

He said the sale of government properties in the months preceding the May 2004 presidential elections could be part of the administration’s election fund-raising efforts.

Angara noted that the Arroyo leadership has been unsuccessfully trying to sell such assets as several lots and buildings in Japan and the United States have been put on the block.

"We are afraid the administration will bring down the prices of these assets and we expect buyers to drive a hard bargain. We don’t like this and we will definitely look into the transactions," he said.

Angara reminded President Arroyo that there is also a constitutional question involved in the sale of lots and buildings in Tokyo, Kobe and Osaka in Japan, and those in the US.

"These assets are part of the national patrimony which cannot be alienated," he said.
The Tokyo properties being sold are a three-story building that previously housed the embassy and the ambassador’s residence.

Another asset up for sale is the transmission network of the National Power Corp., which is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion.

Other assets on the auction block are the state’s 10 percent stake in Manila Electric Co., the Food Terminal Inc. complex in Taguig, a Makati lot where the International School is located, and television networks RPN-9 and IBC-13. –Jess Diaz