Piatco president asks court for permission to travel

One of the people indicted by the government for his alleged involvement in the anomalous construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) has again asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to travel abroad.

Cheng Yong, president of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco), the private firm that helped build the NAIA-3 along with Germany’s Fraport AG, asked the graft court’s first division to allow him to go to Osaka, Japan.

In a two-page motion, the Piatco official asked the justices to allow him to travel to Japan for six days, from April 11 to 16, for an orientation meeting among the coordinators of the newest project of the Lion’s Club International Foundation.

Cheng explained that he has been endorsed and nominated as the organization’s national coordinator for its campaign "Sight First II Project," which seeks to restore eyesight to blind people.

"In preparation for the aforesaid project, an orientation meeting will be held among the project’s coordinators on 13 and 14 April, 2005 at Osaka, Japan," Cheng said in his motion.

The Piatco executive was allowed to attend a three-day business conference in Malaysia last February, shortly after he and other private individuals and officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) posted bail for graft charges filed against them.

As in his previous travel, Cheng said he "is ready, willing and able to comply with whatever conditions" that the anti-graft court may impose upon him, including a travel bond.

Cheng asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to travel abroad to attend the annual meeting of the China International Trade Council on Feb. 26 to 28 to at the Plaza of the Golden Horses in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He also asked the court to allow him to travel from Feb. 25 to March 1.

Cheng and former DOTC chiefs Pantaleon Alvarez, Wilfredo Rivera, several other DOTC officials and Piatco executives were charged with graft for allegedly conspiring to dupe the government by signing onerous provisions in the Piatco contract.  Two others, Germans Hans Arthur Vogel and Bernd Struck, have also been included in the charge sheet, but they have since left the country. They are now the subject of a manhunt by the International Police.

All the Filipino defendants, except for a Piatco consultant identified only by his fictitious name of Alfredo Liongson, have posted bail. The two Germans and Liongson are now the subjects of an arrest warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan.

Government prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman accused the DOTC officials of giving unwarranted benefits to Piatco, at the government’s expense.